i i 



$ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

$ 

f [SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] 

J UNITED ItATES OF AMERICA, 



LEGION, 



FEIGNED EXCUSES 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 



SUA 



$tto g«l: 

DANA AND COMPANY, 

381 BROADWAY. 
1856. 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, 

By Dana and Company, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York 



Stereotyped by 

BTLLIN AND BROTHER, 20 NORTH WILLIAM ST. 



Printed by 

GEORGE RUfiSELL AND GO., 61 BEEKMAN Sr. 



TO 

AND TO 

ALL ENGAGED IN EXTENDING THE REDEEMER'S KINGDOM, 

THIS WORK 
is 

DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR, 

WITH THE HOPE THAT THEY MAY HAVE FRIENDS AS NUMEROUS AND 
ACTIVE AS LEGION. 



[The principal contents of the present work first appeared in 
"The Church Journal." Shortly after their publication, the 
author was requested to furnish them in a more durable form ; 
and, in so arranging the work, he has taken the opportunity of 
adding some illustrations of the original matter, besides arrest- 
ing a few more of Legion's numerous kindred. There is doubt- 
less much yet to be done in this line; for, with the change of 
times we may expect a variation in " Feigned Excuses," but such 
as the author has collected he gives to the public, with the earnest 
wish that the publication may be of some service to those who, 
engaged in " doing good," are suffering the inevitable penalty of 
discouragement, opposition, and neglect.] 



CONTENTS. 



\ 

Pass 



Introduction 7 

I. I have no time 11 

II. I have tried and found my efforts vain 13 

III. God is merciful 14 

IV. I am no worse than others 15 

V. I intend to repent 16 

VI. I am no hypocrite 16 

VII. It is so hard to repent 17 

VIII. I cannot understand it 18 

IX. I can read my Bible at home 21 

X. Going to Church will save no one 22 

XL I cannot afford to go 22 

XII. I like to see my family at Church 23 

XIII. My husband will not accompany me to Church 24 

XIV. I cannot leave my children 25 

XV. I did not feel very well 26 

XVI. The weather was threatening 29 

XVII. I had company 30 

XVIII. I do not like the preacher , 31 

XIX. I do not like your forms of prayer 34 

XX. The service is so long 35 

XXI. I cannot find the places 36 

XXII. Your Church is too exclusive 37 

XXIII. I could not get ready in time 89 

XXIV. My clothes are not suitable for Church 41 

XXV. He must have meant me 41 

XXVI. Call again 43 

XXVII. The times are so hard 43 

XXVIII. Charity begins at home 44 

XXIX. I must be just before generous 45 

1 * 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

XXX. I will throw in my mite 48 

XXXI. I will give as much as Williams 52 

XXXII. I wish you success 53 

XXXIII. So many calls 54 

XXXIY. I am not a Church member 56 

XXX Y. I am not fit for Communion 58 

XXXVI. I am as good as some who do commune 59 

XXXVII. You may baptize my child at home 60 

XXXVIII. The Sponsor's duty is too weighty for me 61 

XXXIX. I am not capable of Sunday School teaching 63 

XL. I have no influence 66 

XLI. Xo poor in our congregation 69 

XLII. I have no interest in the parochial school 72 

XLIII. I forgot the Vestry meeting 73 

XLIV. Only prayers 77 

XLY. I do not like to begin family prayers 78 

XLVI. I must go to the Society 81 

XLVII. Too many books and papers already 81 

XL VIII. I can forgive but not forget 84 

XLIX. He was no one's enemy but his own 86 

L. Send for the minister 87 

LI. They are so distant 88 

LIT. You have no provision for revivals 89 

LIII. What are City Missions to me ? 90 

LIY. Our own Church is in debt 95 

LV. I have no voice 94 

An Umbkella for a rainy Sunday .... , 100 

An empty Church Plate speaking for itself . , 104 

Rules of Order Ill 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is the observation of the learned Bishop Home, that 
"Much time and labor are frequently lost in proving what 
all the hearers allow, as for example, the obligation they are 
under to do their duty, instead of showing and exposing the 
various modes of self-deceit by which they contrive to elude 
the obligation, and live in contradiction to their principles. 
Pleas and pretences of this sort should be collected, stated, 
and answered in a close and lively manner, till the hypocrite 
is completely unmasked, driven out of his strongholds, and 
compelled to surrender at discretion." 

The author of this little book, fully agreeing with the 
Bishop, is satisfied that the awful neglect of religious obliga- 
tions does not result from direct intention, but from a won- 
derful art in palming upon ourselves excuses, which at first 
may seem valid, but on closer inspection are found delusive. 
And that this is the Church's sentiment may be seen in this 
exhortation to the Holy Communion : — " It is an easy mat- 
ter for a man to say, I will not communicate because I am 
otherwise hindered with worldly business. But such ex- 
cuses are not so easily accepted and allowed before God. 
If any man say I am a grievous sinner, and therefore am 
afraid to come ! Wherefore, then, do ye not repent and 



8 



INTRODUCTION . 



amend? When God calleth you, are ye not ashamed to 
say ye will not come 1 ? When ye should return to God, 
will ye excuse yourselves and say ye are not ready ? Con- 
sider earnestly with yourselves how little such feigned ex- 
cuses will avail before God. Those who refused the feast 
in the Gospel, because they had bought a farm or would try 
their yokes of oxen, or because they were married, were not 
so excused, but counted unworthy of the heavenly feast." 

It should, however, be borne in mind, that while the 
Church here specifies the Holy Communion, we are not to 
infer that self-deception is confined to that sacrament, for 
there is no command of God that is not evaded in the very 
same way. Nor must we suppose that these excuses of 
"farm," "oxen," "wife," were the only ones the Saviour 
meant. He doubtless selected these as heads, or specimens 
of a herd whose name is " Legion" and whose agency is as 
active now as when He cast the evil spirits into the swine. 
The minister of Christ is especially sensible of influential 
excuses which render ineffectual the closest sermon, which 
drown the voice of conscience, and make their victim 
deaf to the warnings of a coming judgment. Hundreds of 
men and women there are in nearly every congregation who 
will submit to no deception in their temporal affairs, but 
who, in the more important concern of their soul's salvation, 
take up with the merest excuses, treat fables as Gospel, and 
Gospel as fables, wrap themselves up in a fancied security, 
unaffected by the severest afflictions, unalarmed by the 
realities of a death-bed. Indeed we are informed that such 
excuses survive this life, and retain their hold even at the 
scrutiny of God's Judgment; for one will boldly assert that 



INTRODUCTION. 



9 



he had carefully put away his Lord's talent that it might not 
be lost, and another will say, " Lord, have we not prophesied 
in thy name, and done many wondrous works." But then 
the veil must fall from the false prophet, for to the first Christ 
will say, " Thou wicked and slothful servant and to the 
second, " Depart from me, I never knew you, ye workers of 
iniquity." The various excuses by which men succeed in 
destroying their souls, saying " peace ! peace ! when there is 
no peace," cannot be numbered; perhaps each individual 
has some one excuse peculiar to himself. But there are 
some prominent ones familiar to those examining this sub- 
ject, which are the heads of numerous subdivisions, and as 
such may well be called Legion. It is, of course, not meant 
that such excuses are evil spirits, except in a figurative way 
of speaking, but there is no doubt that Satan frequently sug- 
gests them to the mind ; for if — as we read in Holy Scrip- 
ture — he comes and takes from the inattentive heart the 
good seed sown there, it is easy to see, that where such seed 
has taken root, he will use every means to destroy its pro- 
ductiveness ; and this he will do most successfully, not by 
urging direct opposition to the truth, but indirectly coun- 
teracting its influence, by satisfying a person, that though he 
is not doing what God requires, he has very good reasons 
for not doing so. "In the day thou eatest thou shalt not 
die." And the more satisfactory those reasons are, the 
more secure is the victim, especially if he can be persuaded, 
with Adam and Balaam, that " God has kept him back from 
good." Indeed this very case of Balaam should warn all to 
examine themselves, to pray with the Psalmist, to be " kept 
from secret faults," by which is meant, not faults secret to 



10 



INTRODUCTION. 



others, but through self-deception to ourselves, and to satisfy 
not only the eyes of neighbors, but His "unto whom all 
hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no se- 
crets are hid." 

The reminding others of faults to which they haye been 
insensible is by no means pleasant, for it gives pain ; but 
he who, to correct faults would spare that pain, will be as 
unsuccessful as the physician who would cure some deep- 
seated disease while the patient is asleep. And although 
recent discoveries in medicine may perhaps lead to this re- 
sult, nothing of the kind can be attempted in morals ; for, 
here the very disease is insensibility, and the cure consists 
in rousing the patient from the delusive dreams of imagina- 
tion to the realities of duty. It is for this purpose this book 
has been written. The writer has, with great difficulty, 
succeeded in arresting many excuses, and in bringing them 
out of their lurking-places. He has further succeeded in 
having them bound together, so that they may leisurely 
be examined, one by one. Or, to change the figure slightly, 
he has tried to construct a true mirror, by which characters 
may be better known : and he would request the reader, if 
he should see himself there, not to throw down the mirror 
as false, but to change himself, so that the next look may be 
more agreeable. In this way a little book may be of great 
service, as it may introduce a person to a stranger he should 
have known long since,— himself, and thus correct deficiencies 
which, though unseen, are still ruinous to the soul. 

"Let upright men reprove 1117 faults, 
And I shall think them kind; 
Like healing oil upon my head, 
I their reproof shall find." 



Ccgton, 

OR 

FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



"FOR they are many." 



I 

" I HAVE NO TIME : MY BUSINESS TAKES EVERY SPARE MO- 
MENT." — And this is your excuse for neglecting repentance, 
and thus you will live, and thus die. But a word with you, 
my friend. Do you not take time to refresh the body with 
sleep and food, and shall you not attend to the wants of your 
immortal soul ? Could you not spare half an hour daily 
from your business for your devotion, or could you not, 
without disturbing your business, rise earlier, and so gain 
the requisite time % The busiest man, as Lord Brougham, 
has been able to accomplish great and numerous results by 
saving merely fragments of time, as goldsmiths save the 
filings of precious metals : and could not you do the same % 
And where is your Sunday, the day that was given expressly 
for devotion, and which, properly improved, would save the 
soul 1 How can you say you have no time, when fifty-two 
Sundays every year close your place of business and invite 
you to God's house of prayer 1 But you mean that you de- 
vote Sundays also to the cares of business, the writing of 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



letters, the examination of accounts, and thus, truly, you 
have no time, but the reason is, you kill it, and you deceive 
yourself with an excuse. God has given you abundant 
opportunity for repentance. Your business cannot be so 
engrossing as Daniel's, who, with the superintendence of a 
kingdom, found time to return to his chamber and worship 
God three times a day. No ; you do not really wish to 
repent, and then you lay the blame upon the want of time. 
However, after death you will not be so troubled with these 
busy cares, and you will have ample time for repentance, 
but then it will be too late. 

Each moment of time is so valuable that God never gives 
us one until the previous one is taken away ; of them, differ- 
ing from all His other gifts, there can be no accumulation. 
They are our spare moments, which by proper use accom- 
plish life's great object. The excellent Eobert Boyle well re- 
marks : — " As though grains of sand and ashes be but of des- 
picable smallness and very easy to be blown away, yet the 
skilful artificer by a vehement fire brings numbers of these 
to make him that noble substance, glass; by whose help we 
may see ourselves and our blemishes represented, as in a 
looking-glass ; discern heavenly objects, as with a telescope ; 
or with sunbeams kindle, as with burning-glasses ; so when 
these little fragments of time, which if not carefully looked 
to would be lost, are managed by a skilful Christian and im- 
proved by the fire of devotion, they may afford us looking- 
glasses to dress our souls by, and perspectives to discover 
heavenly wonders, and incentives to inflame our hearts with 
charity and zeal." 

While Philip De Neri was living in an Italian university, 
a young man ran to him with a face full of delight, and told 
him that he had come to the law-school of that place on ac- 
count of its great fame, and that he intended to spare no 
pains or labor to get through his studies as soon as possible. 
Philip waited for his conclusion with great patience, and then 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



13 



said : — " Well, and when you have got through your course 
of studies what do you mean to do V 

"Then I shall take my Doctor's degree," answered the 
young man. 

" And then V asked Philip again. 

" And then," continued the youth, " I shall have a number 
of difficult questions to manage, shall catch people's notice by 
my eloquence, my zeal, my learning, my acuteness, and gain 
a great reputation." 

" And then V repeated the holy man. 

" And then," replied the youth, " why there can't be a ques- 
tion I shall be promoted to some high office or other ; besides, 
I shall make money and grow rich." 

"And then?" repeated Philip. 

" And then," pursued the young lawyer, " then I shall live 
comfortably and honorably in health and dignity." 
" And then ?" asked the holy man. 

" And then, said the youth ..." and then . . . and then 
. . . then I shall die." 

Here St. Philip raised his voice, — "And what then 1 ?" 
Whereupon the young man made no answer, but cast down 
his head and went away. The last " And then" had like light- 
ning pierced his soul, and he could not get rid of it. Soon 
after he forsook the law, and gave himself to the ministry of 
Christ, and spent the remainder of his days in godly words 
and works. " Your business," reader, " takes every spare 
moment." And what then ? 

II. 

" But I have tried, and found my exertions vain." — Then 
you could not have sought the proper object, or not in the 
right way, for all who have really tried to repent know that 
God "never said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye my face in 
vain." You sought, but what kind of seeking ] Was it with 
2 



14 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



the whole heart.? If not, you did not seek Him aright, for 
He assures us that then we " shall find Him when we seek 
Him with the whole heart." Half-heartedness accomplishes 
nothing important, and you might have expected a failure. 
Perhaps under some plain sermon or distressing affliction 
your thoughts turned towards Heaven. You prayed in 
Church and in private, but you did not incorporate these 
prayers into action, or the reformation which you made was 
in your own strength exclusively. You tried, just as men go 
about some unpleasant duty, and not as those who dig for 
silver. No, you have not tried, or you would have been suc- 
cessful. The fault has been in yourself, not in God. And if 
you will try earnestly, and repeatedly, you shall resemble the 
prophet, who, though no cloud arose for six prayers, was 
answered in the seventh ; or her whose, prayers for mercy 
were delayed only to bring down a richer blessing on her 
faith. Persevere and you shall succeed. 



III. 

" God is merciful." — He is, indeed, so much so "that He 
gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." But this 
mercy is for sinners who repent ; there is none for continued 
impenitence, for " the soul that sinneth, it shall die." It was 
sin that caused a merciful God to expel Angels from Heaven, 
Adam from Paradise, and that plunged the sword of justice 
into the bosom of the Saviour. And it is sin which at the 
judgment day will drive the impenitent to outer darkness, 
where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Were a 
governor to proclaim pardon to criminals on their ceasing 
from crime, what malignity of character would they exhibit 
if they made the governor's clemency an excuse for con- 
tinuing their wicked doings ? So, to continue in sin on the 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



15 



plea that God is merciful, is adding insult to previous injury. 
It is drawing on his mercy in a way He does not authorize, 
and it is a self-deception which will some day be discovered. 
Yes, God is merciful, but beware of mercy's anger — the wrath 
of the Lamb ! 

IY. 

" I am no worse than others." — Probably not ; but then 
you owe a debt of gratitude to Him who has so kept you 
from falling into those sins which are ruining others ; and how 
do you pay this debt ? By disobeying Him who thus preserved 
you, and by telling Him that you are " no worse than others ?" 
But what do you mean by saying that you are no worse 
than others 1 That you have numbers on your side ? Then 
you have not read that " though hand join in hand, the wicked 
shall not go unpunished." You have forgotten that God de- 
stroyed a world of impenitents, saving one righteous family, 
and that God's word plainly warns us "not to follow a 
multitude to do evil." If you are no worse than others, you 
certainly will not be punished more than they; but what 
mitigation to individual pain is it, that others experience 
more ?- You are, however, worse than others, for there are 
many, leading " sober, righteous and godly lives," who com- 
pare their conduct with God's unerring law, not with the 
opinions and practices of others; who show their gratitude 
for God's mercies not only with their lips, but in their lives : 
while you, — trampling under foot those same mercies, — 
extenuate your conduct by a mere excuse. By continuing in 
your present disposition, you provoke God to withdraw His 
restraining grace, and then, like Hazael, you may sink below 
those others who are your present standard. 

So far from being worse, you may indeed be better, than 
others. You may even thank God that you are not as this 
neighbor, and yet justifying yourself you may be condemned 
by your all-seeing Judge. 



16 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



V. 

" I intend to repent." — And thus is substituted intention 
for the act — a very allowable thing when the act cannot be 
performed, but a mockery of God when it can. But you may 
not have time to repent ; for, in a week, time may be no more 
with you ; or, if you have time, you may not have the inten- 
tion, for intentions die when not carried into effect ; or you 
may not have God's aid, for " when he called, you refused." 
But you are deceiving yourself. You do not intend to repent. 
You are as the intemperate man who intends to reform after 
further indulgence in his vice ; or, as a dishonest man, who 
intends to be honest after further thefts. If you really in- 
tended, you would begin now, for now is God's accepted time. 
You would be warned by Felix, who tried the more con- 
venient season, to his eternal ruin. 

Intention or resolution is but an imperfect act, a term of 
relation, and signifies nothing but in order to its actions; it is 
as a faculty to the act — as spring to the harvest — as eggs are 
to birds — as a relative to a correspondent : — nothing without 
it. No man therefore can be in a state of grace and actual 
favor by resolutions and holy purposes. These are but the 
gates and portals towards pardon ; a holy life is the only perfec- 
tion of repentance, and the firm ground upon which we can 
cast the anchor of "hope in the mercies of God through 
Jesus Christ." 

VI. 

" I am no hypocrite." — Which, doubtless, you suppose is a 
very meritorious assertion. You mean, that, to be sure, you 
are guilty of some sins, but perfectly innocent of hypocrisy ; 
and your innocency in this respect is to atone for many 
delinquencies. But where did you learn that hypocrisy was 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 17 

the crowning sin of all, and so much worse than disobedience 
or covetousness'? Not certainly in God's Word, which re- 
quires repentance not for one, but all sins. But supposing 
you are no hypocrite ; that is, that you do not deceive your 
fellow men, you are evidently deceiving yourself in your im- 
penitency, and it is difficult to see what right a person has to 
deceive himself more than to deceive others. Indeed, this 
self-deception is hypocrisy just as self-killing is murder. And 
then, again, as you imply that some whom you know are 
hypocrites, may you not be as much mistaken in the estimate 
of their character as you are of your own; at least one 
should be cautious how in a single breath he acquits himself 
and condemns others. However, your being no hypocrite, 
no more excuses you, than your hypocritical friends being no 
slanderers, excuses them. 

VII. 

" It is so hard to repent" — and with this view of repent- 
ance, God is regarded as a hard master, and his service a 
toilsome drudgery ; but it can be shown that He requires of 
us nothing but for our good, and for this end ordains labor as 
necessary to our moral health, for both morally and phy- 
sically we " must earn our bread by the sweat of the brow." 
If the difficulties of religion were beyond human capacity, 
there would be reason in the excuse ; but God puts no more 
upon us than we are able to bear, and no more than is 
necessary to exercise our good, and mortify our evil disposi- 
tions ; and without such spiritual labor goodness must die. 
The difficulties of religion show its value, for could it be ob- 
tained without exertion, we should esteem it as the dust of 
the ground. Gold is sought for, diligently ; and is valued 
because thus sought; and it is this seeking diligently for 
God's favor which makes us appreciate it when found, for 



18 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



" As her hoty labors rise, 
So her rewards increase." 

It is indeed hard to repent without continued exertion, and 
it is also hard when we rely on our own strength ; but 
repentance is practicable when God's aid is sought by earnest 
prayer united to our own efforts. In such case the ima- 
ginary difficulties vanish as mist before the sun, and the real 
ones diminish. It is your continued impenitence that makes 
it hard to return, and the longer continued, the more difficult 
will it become, for habits which might be broken now, in a 
year will become inveterate. No : the difficulty is in yourself. 
You say, "there is a lion in the way," but the wise man 
assures us that it is the slothful man says so. Shake off sloth, 
and you are rid of a most formidable enemy. 

And it is very questionable whether this excuse of " so 
hard" will endure your own scrutiny. You do not repent 
because it is beyond your efforts ; in a year it will be still 
more impracticable. One would suppose* if you really found 
such difficulty now, you would not allow time to add any- 
thing further to this difficulty, but would immediately employ 
extraordinary energy. The alternative " now or never" would 
stimulate to present work. Nor can you believe that re- 
pentance now is impracticable, for this belief would cause a 
state of mind which would prevent your reading this volume. 
You would need some opiate for despair, not some excite- 
ment for insensibility. 

VIII. 

" I cannot understand it." — Then I infer that you do not 
intend to believe or do anything unless you understand it. 
If so, to be consistent, you should learn nothing, do nothing, 
for all that you should most value contains mysteries 
above the highest comprehension. Newton, with all his 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



19 



learning, spoke of his attainments as the picking up of peb- 
bles on the beach of science ; — the ocean was yet unexplored. 
Indeed, if you have maintained such a principle early in life, 
you could not now be reading this book, because, previous to 
your learning anything, it could not now nor at any future 
time, be understood, unless the requisite application be 
given. The more one advances, the more sensible is he of 
his ignorance, and the less inclined to boast. What ineffable 
folly, then, to make obedience depend on your understanding 
the nature of God,— which is as high above us as heaven is 
above earth ; far higher than we are above the worm that 
crawls beneath our feet. 

But you do not understand the Scriptures ; you find some 
contradictions there. Then you have read the Scriptures : 
but how have you read them 1 to learn the truth or to find 
fault ? If the latter, you have brought to the investigation 
an evil eye, which would discover a beam in purity itself. 
The Bible has apparent contradictions, just as the book of 
nature ; and as the latter requires a patient study of Astron- 
omy, and Chemistry, to render page harmonious with page, so 
the former requires a docile, humble, childlike disposition ; 
and with this, apparent contradictions illustrate God's wisdom 
and man's folly. The Bible itself declares who shall under- 
stand it : " Those that do the will of God shall know of the 
doctrine :" " Them that are meek will He guide in judgment." 
A rebel is not likely to understand the principles of the gov- 
ernment he is trying to destroy : his aim is to find defects, 
not excellencies. No ; the difficulty is not in understanding 
the Bible ; for were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to say 
precisely the same thing, then the objection would be that 
their story was made up, and that their narratives lacked the 
evidence of correctness, "substantial truth under circum- 
stantial variety." But the difficulty is this, not understand- 
ing yourself. From that study you turn your attention, in 
order to find fault with God's Word. Look more inward, 



20 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

and you will see sin, and then God's Word will show you 
pardon. Make the investigation now. It must be made 
some time. The mysteries of God's Word and Providence 
are mercifully beyond our understanding, as they keep in 
activity the faithful study of the greatest saint. But this 
merciful provision is thwarted, and you are persuaded by the 
tempter to insist on being " as gods," and for this purpose to 
do what He has forbidden. 

Let those who cannot understand the Bible hear the testi- 
mony of the learned Bishop Horsley: "It is incredible to 
any one who has not made the experiment, what proficiency 
may be made in that knowledge which maketh wise unto sal- 
vation, by studying the Scriptures by parallel passages, 
without any other commentary or exposition than what the 
different parts of the Sacred Volume mutually furnish for 
each other. Let the most unlearned Christian study in this 
manner ; let him never cease to pray for the illumination of 
that Spirit by which these books were dictated, and no argu- 
ment of the perverse will of man shall be able to shake this 
learned Christian's faith." 



The foregoing excuses, with many others, are made when- 
ever the duty of repentance is enjoined. In order to repent, 
however, the use of certain ordinances is enjoined, which are 
not only means of grace but tests of character, and the last 
was probably the principal design of their appointment : for, 
men being so apt to delude themselves as to their condition, 
judged by itself or compared with other men's, God has left 
certain outward commands by which we may judge of our 
internal state — commands as obligatory as any of the -Ten, 
deriving, as they do, their authority from the Lawgiver, in- 
dependent of any benefit in the law itself ; but although these 
ordinances are both a means and a test of repentance, their 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



£1 



force is evaded with amazing art, and numbers neglect the 
plainest requirements of the Gospel, as though its sound had 
never reached their ears ; thus they live and thus they die, 
— a deceived heart turning them aside, so that they never 
seriously ask themselves, " Is there not a lie in my right 
hand?" 

IX. 

" I can read my Bible at home." — Then you have cause 
for gratitude that you can read and that you have the Bible, 
of both of which privileges thousands are deprived, and you 
should express your gratitude by keeping all God's or- 
dinances. But by your excuse, you mean that you purpose 
not to go to church, because you can read the Bible at home. 
You can, but do you read if? No ! for it would be strange 
to see one not taking pleasure in public worship, yet delight- 
ing to read the Bible that enjoins that worship. To stay at 
home when opportunity is afforded for public worship, is in 
direct opposition to the Apostle's direction, " not to forsake 
the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some 
is;" and if they were not to neglect it, when persecution 
raged against the Christian assemblies, how can you omit it, 
who have none to molest you 1 To read the Bible at home 
instead of assembling for worship, would destroy the Church, 
which can be known to the world, only by the visible acts of 
its members. Then we could not know that Christ has any 
friends, or who they are. Let the members of any other 
society make the experiment of neglecting the times of meet- 
ing, on the plea that they can read its constitution and history 
at home, and soon they would have no society to neglect. 
No ! You can, indeed, read the Bible at home, but you do 
not, and will not, so long as, with such an excuse, you break 
the Lord's Day. 



22 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



X. 

" Going to church will save no one." — But who said 
that by itself it would 1 You are fighting with your own 
shadow. Going to church is an important duty, as many 
others ; but the performance of one duty, as church-going, 
will not compensate for the neglect of others. It is a means 
of grace : not grace itself. It places a person in the way of 
salvation, where he will learn what further is to be done, and 
the mode of doing it. Food will not of itself preserve life, 
therefore, according to your principles, you should not eat. 

Public worship will not, indeed, save any one, as the 
lives of too many persons prove ; but wilful absence from 
church, unrepented of, will destroy you : because it violates 
a command of God, and closes a channel of that grace which 
is indispensable to salvation. The very abuse shows that 
there is a proper use. 

XI. 

" I cannot afford to go." — That is, the renting of a seat, 
or the payment of a subscription, costs too much. Perhaps, 
such is the case; and their doubtless is, in some of our 
churches, a want of provision for those who can pay nothing. 
This much is readily granted ; but this excuse often implies 
that while, in our churches there is a tax, in other places 
of worship there is nothing to pay — membership being 
had without money or price. But this is a great mistake : for 
all churches must be supported in one way or an other. The 
payment my seem smaller when made each week or month, 
but in a year the total amount is very much as with us ; 
sometimes indeed much greater. You do not wish to imitate 
that man, who, boasting of his Church's superiority, said, that 
* though he had been an attendant for thirty years, it had 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 23 

never cost him a cent" — forgetting that others paid for him 
by additional assessment. But can you not afford it? Is 
there no indulgence of a pernicious practice which might be 
left off?' No moderation in dress, furniture, table, or amuse- 
ments, which might be practised 1 Can no conceivable econ- 
omy save a small amount for the Lord's treasury? Not 
even two mites'? Have you ever tried the abstinence in 
Lent enjoined by the Church, and appropriated the savings of 
that season to the Church % These alone, in a family, would 
enable you to afford the necessary rent or subscription. No ! 
there are many who will undergo privation for some future 
self-indulgence : but for the Church, will not surrender a 
single gratification, curtail a single extravagance, or abstain 
from things which are lawful. Many could afford it if they 
would, but the will is wanting : and you probably begrudge 
the Church the fair assessment necessary for the Church's 
merest wants, and are profuse in your opinions as to churches, 
costing so much, and the Gospel's being preached without 
charge. But you are deceiving yourself, and not Him who 
says, " Will a man rob God 1 but ye have robbed Me ;" and 
when, in your self-delusion, you ask, "Wherein have we 
robbed thee?" He replies, "In tithes and offerings." You 
cannot contribute to His Church, and " inasmuch as ye have 
not done it to her, ye have not done it to Him" who bought 
you with His blood. 

XII. 

" I LIKE TO SEE MY FAMILY AT CHURCH." And why not 

like to see yourself there ? " Church is the place for them" 
and you accordingly pass your Sundays in idleness, paying 
visits, examining accounts, taking walks; and the church 
consequently is filled with females, while very few men are 
to be seen. How is this ? Were the Commandments given 
to females alone ? are men exempted from remembering the 



24 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

Sabbath Day to keep it holy ? are men so much better than 
their wives, sisters, and children, that they do not require to 
know their duty and be assisted in its performance ? Or are 
they generally so impenitent as to be beyond recovery ? 
What is the cause ? But a gleam of hope appears ; they 
like to see their family at church. Is this really so ? like to 
see others dearest to you do that which you will not ? This 
can hardly be. What do your actions say? for they, to 
those around you, speak louder than words. Why, plainly, 
that you do not like to see them at church. You may not 
oppose it; but it is a matter of perfect indifference, and 
hence you must not be surprised if what you do has more in- 
fluence than what you say, and that, in a short time, your 
family will like to see other families going to church, but, 
like yourself, will not go themselves. " Like to see them 
go," indeed ! when you are taking the most successful plan 
you can to change your church into a warehouse, and Sunday 
into Monday ! 

XIII. 

"My husband will not accompany me to church." — 
And why not? Perhaps you have not tried to induce him, 
or perhaps, seeing that your temper has been so little im- 
proved by church attendance, he does not deem it necessary. 
But admitting that you have tried, and that you are married 
to one " who cares for none of these things," what then ? 
Must you also follow his example and stay from worship for 
weeks? Desirable as it is to have company, and particu- 
larly that of a husband, your duty to keep the Sabbath holy 
is clear. If he will be lost, it is not necessary that you share 
that calamity: on the contrary, there is greater need of 
watchfulness against his unhappy influence. Should he even 
throw obstacles in the way, it is your duty to remove them, 
for though a wife should obey, that obedience ceases if it 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



C5 



cause her to disobey her God ; for God's laws are superior 
to all others, marriage itself deriving its authority from Hirn. 
It is usual to lay the blame of our deficiencies on others, and 
to say, " the woman or man whom thou gavest me, did tempt 
me to eat," but such excuses are not allowed before God. 
Your situation is doubtless trying, but God's grace will en- 
able you to bear it, and an important means of receiving 
that grace is — attending divine worship. 

Some wives suppose that by yielding in this respect, they 
may at length persuade their husbands to attend ; but the re- 
sult is just the contrary, for, the wife yielding a principle once, 
her next step is more easy, and the husband, seeing her 
violate conscience once, is more emboldened. Whereas, had 
she been firm, and shown by her temper, not that she loved 
her husband less, but loved her God more, he would have 
respected her more, and perhaps been won over by her con- 
versation. As regards domestic peace alone, a wife stands 
greatly in her own light who either neglects church herself, 
or, attending it, does not influence her husband to attend with 
her : for without patience to meet the crosses that daily arise, 
there can be no permanent peace. And there can be no such 
peace in a family, unless it come from Him "who is tho 
author of peace and lover of concord." 

It is so rare for a husband not to attend because a wife will 
not, that it is not necessary to consider such a thing ; only, if 
Lot's wife choose to turn to a pillar of salt, Lot must avoid 
her sade fate by fleeing to the mountains. 

XIV. 

"I cannot leave my children." — Certainly, children 
should not be left alone, — particularly an infant. But is 
there no mode of removing this difficulty ? Could not the 
father take care of them, while the mother is at church 
8 



26 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

for an hour or two, and he, in his turn, have an opportunity 
of going % Is there no elder sister, no aunt, no grandmother, 
no female friend, who has the Christian charity to send the 
mother to church 1 — no relatives ! Why, what do relatives 
avail 1 ? She cannot get any assistance, and of course she 
never gets to market, to the store, to the Society ; but stay ! 
she does occasionally go to these latter places, and the reason 
of the difference is this : — to go out on week days there is a 
will and a way, but to attend church there is no will, and con- 
sequently no way. No ! the mother has allowed her child to 
become an idol, and hence she thinks it will die if she should 
leave it for church. She may say her creed, but she does not 
" believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth," for, if she did believe it, she would occasionally trust 
His providence. 

It is melancholy to see females, diligent Christians before 
marriage, spiritually insensible afterwards. On becoming 
mothers, they should be more grateful to God, and require 
more grace to meet their increased responsibility; but fre- 
quently they are less grateful, and less sensible of their need 
of grace ; both which are the result of long indulged absence 
from worship. The mother of an infant may not be able to 
attend regularly, but to stay away altogether for months is a 
great mistake, changing, as it does, the intended blessing of 
the marriage relation into a curse. 

XV. 

"I did not feel very well." — On hearing which, one 
cannot avoid remarking the frequency of headaches on Sun- 
day. On Monday and Saturday many are cheerful and busy, 
but on Sunday, the attack prostrates them, and they do not 
feel well enough for church. It might seem, indeed, as if 
some seventh day epidemic had broken out, and that God, 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



27 



instead of blessing the Sabbath, had actually cursed it. 
What can be the cause'? Perhaps you do not retire until ex- 
hausted by the late work of Saturday night. If so, the rem- 
edy is simple : make preparation, as the Jews did, by retiring 
earlier, and then nature, having rest, will not complain. Or 
perhaps you do nothing on Sunday, and the inactive mind, 
preying on itself, produces depression of spirits. But while 
the Sabbath is rest from business cares, it is not rest from de- 
votion : and if you would go to church, joining there with 
your friends in prayer and praise; if you would teach a class, 
catechise your children or servants, or call on some sick or 
poor member of the congregation, Sundays would be found 
as healthy to body and soul as Mondays. 

Alarming Complaint. — There is a disease at this time 
but too prevalent, an account of which is not to be found in 
our popular books of medicine ; I shall, therefore, endeavor 
to communicate some particulars respecting it. The disease 
to which I refer is evidently of the intermitting kind ; and in 
all cases that have fallen under my notice, has attacked the 
patient with violent paroxysms, which return every seventh 
day. It may be thought to savor of superstition to mention 
it, and yet it is a fact, and therefore must not be passed over, 
that these paroxysms return only on the Lord's day, on 
which account the disease is called the Sunday sickness ; and 
the faculty know it by no other name than " Diei Dominici 
Morbus." On account of its periodical attacks, some have 
thought it to be a kind of ague, as it is attended with a de- 
gree of coldness ; though I do not perceive the symptoms of 
shivering which are usual in that complaint. 

I have observed the paroxysms commence at different pe- 
riods ; but generally in the morning of the Lord's day, and 
in many cases they seize the patient before he has left his bed, 
and make him indisposed to rise till a later hour than usual. 
A coldness has first been noticed about the region of the 
heart, and a dullness of the head, which stupifies the brain, 



'28 



IKGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



not unusually succeeds ; this is followed by a yawning and 
kind of lethargy. The patient is sometimes deprived of the 
use of his limbs, especially the legs and feet, so that he feels 
himself indisposed to walk to the house of God. Some pa- 
tients have gone to the solemn assembly, but they have gen- 
erally entered it later than their neighbors ; and even there 
the paroxysms have seized them, and the symptoms of yawn- 
ing and lethargy have been so violent, that they have fallen 
into a deep sleep, even when the preacher has been deliver- 
ing the most solemn truths ; and others have been extremely 
uneasy in their confinement during the short time of service, 
though they have been known to sit very contented in a play- 
house for several hours together. This disease appears to 
stupify those who are subject to it, so that however they 
may appear to suffer, they are seldom, if ever, heard to com- 
plain. I have known many persons under other diseases 
mourn, on account of their being kept from public worship ; 
but the victims of this extraordinary disorder were never 
heard so to do. I was at first greatly surprised, after hear- 
ing that patients could not get to public worship, to find them 
the next day as active as if they had not been subject to any 
indisposition. But I have since found it very common after 
the paroxysms are removed, for the patient to appear per- 
fectly well till the approach of the next Sabbath ; though 
most of the faculty agree, that there is a low fever to be per- 
ceived during the days of interval, which is called " febris 
mundi," or the worldly fever. There seems also to be a loss 
of appetite for savory food, and an entire want of relish for 
the bread of life which it is thought might be of service to 
remove their disease, as one both skilled and experienced 
has asserted that it was more to him than his necessary food : 
and another has recommended it as particularly agreeable to 
the taste. One circumstance I had almost forgotten, viz : 
that those who have not refused to pay attention to the form 
of religion, if they are subject to Sunday sickness, generally 



LEGION. OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 29 

feel somewhat chilly and listless, about the hour of secret re- 
tirement and family devotion. From some symptoms in the 
families where this disease has made its first appearance, 
there is reason to fear that it is contagious. Some children 
have received the infection from their parents, and I expect 
every week to see it more prevalent in the vicinity of several 
families, who are dreadfully under the power of the disorder. 
The symptoms of yawning are evident in some, and of 
lethargy in others, who are not yet so far gone as to keep 
from public worship. 

XVI. 

" The weather was threatening." — This, then, was the 
reason why so few were at church on last Sunday. Many 
are very greatly afraid of the weathers threats, who, however, 
care nothing for the frown of their Maker. Yes ! the weather 
on Sunday is always wrong ; too hot, "too cold, too wet, too 
cloudy. Sometimes, perhaps twice in the year, a Sunday 
appears 

" so clear, so calm, so bright, 

The bridal of the earth and sky." 

The thermometer is right at last, and then there is a 
rush to church. There is no possibility of blaming any 
but themselves, and the fine day shames them to church. 
But next Sunday, after a careful investigation, a cloud is 
seen which, looking black, of course, threatens, and con- 
sequently a general alarm is created. It is discovered that 
there is a disposition to cold, and that care is very necessary. 
The same persons, however, had made arrangements for 
a concert, on the next Wednesday, when a celebrated singer 
would perform ; the day came, and with it rain. Some one 
suggested health, that there was some risk in such weather. 
No ! there was not the least danger, as they would use 
precautions to keep off the damp, and they went. The 



30 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

concert was quite full that night, while only thirteen were at 
the week service. Had this rain occurred on Sunday, no 
umbrella could have kept it off — Sunday rains being particu- 
larly searching ; and, of course, no prudent person goes to 
church. On Sundays our friends look to see if the weather 
threatens : on week days they look to see if it is clearing up. 
Strange inconsistency ! And one that will continue until some 
charitable person invents a Sunday umbrella.* 

" Worshippers of the Sun." — The worship of the sun, 
under the name of Baal, was once nearly universal in Asia ; 
and it demands a doubt whether the race of sun worshippers 
has become wholly extinct, even in Christian lands. " For we 
have with us many who take no part in public worship, ex- 
cept when the sun shines. If the skies are overcast, their 
duty seems veiled from view — if a light mist is falling, or 
if there is a moderate rain, the main attraction of worship is 
gone, and they are absent from God's house. Whether this 
justifies the inference that the sun is their god, or that fair 
weather is their god, the reader will judge. But it has been 
common to call them " fair weather Christians." But Sun 
worshippers could be as easily, and as truly spoken. 

XVII. 

"I had company." — A company of Sabbath breakers — 
and to please them, you must also break the Sabbath by 
neglecting your church. But why not take your company 
with you to church'? You would thus be the means of doing 
them great good, for they would be in the way of hearing 
that God has one day in seven, which he wishes not only 
every one to keep holy, but also " the stranger within thy 
gates," that is, the company that visits you. Should they 
be indisposed to go with you, you should kindly excuse your- 
* See page 100. 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 31 

self; and if they become displeased, you had better offend 
them, than your Maker ; and, after all, their displeasure may 
lessen an intimacy which is any thing but profitable. 

XVIII. 

"I no not like the Preacher." — But you should not 
attend church, — merely to hear the preacher, for Christ 
says that " His house is a house of prayer," and prayer is as 
superior in importance to preaching, as receiving a blessing 
is to hearing it. This going to hear the preacher, is likely 
to prove a species of man-worship, and the devotee will at 
length think heaven depends on some particular mortal, who 
would doubtless do well if not spoiled by such flattery. The 
effect of this is seen in some congregations, that do not like 
any one to take their pastor's place for a Sunday, and some 
pastors so yield to this feeling, that they hesitate in extending 
the courtesy of an invitation to their brother ministers. A 
lady some years ago, on her pastor's going to a neighboring 
city, actually followed him to hear his sermon, and thus avoid 
the substitute he had provided. But while such persons can- 
not tolerate other pastors than their own, some do not like 
their own preacher. What has yours done that you dis- 
like him 1 ? Why, perhaps nothing in particular, — or some 
one has slandered him, or he has plainly told the impenitent 
that they must repent or perish* or he has reproved kindly 
one of his flock who was openly breaking the promises of 
confirmation, or he did not know immediately when Mrs. S. 
was taken sick, and consequently did not go until sent for, 
or he does not visit Mr. B. every week, sick or well, or he 
visits Mrs. C. more than Mrs. D., or his wife does not please 
every body. 

But perhaps you like the man well enough, but do not like 
his sermons. Do they contain false doctrine, contrary to the 
Church's understanding of Holy Scripture ? " No ! but he is 



Z2 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

so cold, and does so little good; crowds do not flock to hear 

him as they do to hear Mr. ;" that is, he does not scream 

as though his people were deaf, nor does he say things which 
suppose his people wanting in common sense, nor preach to 
draw crowds, "but endeavors to please God and his own con- 
science. Nor is he " successful," for such persons as you, 
instead of improving by his sermons, and bringing others to 
hear them, take occasion always to find fault with them, and 
stay away for such slight causes as are discouraging. The 
fault is in yow, and not in him. He is most probably a faithful 
minister, who preaches plain and scriptural sermons, and it 
is not he that fails of success, but the Spirit of God which 
employs him as an instrument, and which in vain seeks 
entrance into your heart, and where you repel its gracious 
offer, you blame the preacher. The true reason is this — ■ 
you do not like him because you do not like the truths he 
preaches. It is you that are cold: for were he to preach 
in the same manner and tone on the best mode of making 
investments, or of selecting a particular candidate, he would 
be found animated enough ; but when he reproves sin, then 
he is too cold, or too long, or anything for an excuse. Holy 
Scripture explains your distaste when it says, " every one 
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, 
lest his deeds should be reproved." Doubtless you think the 
Bible itself cold, and consequently neglect its study; but 
when you wake up to a sense of your real condition, you will 
think very differently. 



"Judge not the preacher, for he is thy judge ; 

If thou mislike, thou eonceivest him not 
God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge 

To pick out treasures from an earthen pot : 
The worst speak something good. If all want sense, 
God takes a text and preacheth patience. 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



33 



"He that gets patience, and the blessing which 

Preachers conclude with, hath not lost his pains. 
He that, by being at church, escapes the ditch 

"Which he might fall in by companions, gains. 
He that loves God's abode, and to combine 
With saints on earth, shall one day with them shine. 

"Let vain or busy thoughts have there no part : 

Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasure thither, 
Christ purged His temple, so must thou thy heart : 

All worldly thoughts are but thieves met together 
To cozen thee. Look to thy actions well, 
For churches either are our Heaven or our Hell 1" 



As illustrating the prevailing fastidiousnes in " choosing the 
preacher," the following is greatly to the point : — 

" The people in one of the out parishes in Virginia, wrote 
to Dr. Rice, then at the head of a Theological Seminary, for 
a minister. They wanted a man of first rate talents, for they 
very much needed building up. They wanted one that could 
write well, for the young people were very nice in this matter. 
They wanted one that visited a good deal — a duty their former 
minister had neglected. They wanted a gentleman, for some 
thought a great deal about that, and so they went on, describ- 
ing a perfect minister. They lastly mentioned that they gave 
their minister a salary of three hundred and fifty dollars ; but if 
the Doctor would send an acceptable man, they would raise 
fifty dollars more. The Doctor wrote in reply, that they had 
better call old Dr. Dwight from heaven, for he did not know 
any one in this world that answered their description, and as 
Dr. Dwight had been long living on spiritual food, he might 
not need so much for the body, and possibly might live on 
four hundred dollars. 



34 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

XIX. 

" I DO NOT LIKE TOUR FORMS OF PRATER." But yOU may 

have conceived an early prejudice against them, and been 
taught that, unless a man prays extemporaneously in a con- 
gregation, God will hardly hear what is offered up. Per- 
haps you have never examined the subject ; if not, consider 
this brief argument for forms of public devotion. When 
prayer is extemporaneous, the hearer must first ascertain what 
is said, he must then attend to its import, — and then as- 
cends his devotion ; but, in a form, he knows what is the 
prayer; he understands it, being familiar with it, and his 
devotion ascends immediately — supposing him to have the 
spirit of prayer, for, without that, prayer of any kind is vain. 
For this reason a true worshipper is less liable to distrac- 
tion of mind with a form, than with extemporaneous expres- 
sion. Besides this, the worship of the Jewish Church, in 
which Christ and His apostles united, " going to the temple 
to pray," was always in a prescribed form. So in the early 
Christian Church, and among the Churches of the Reforma- 
tion, there was no objection to forms. The Lutheran still 
retains them, Luther preferring a form for his private devo- 
tion. Mr. Wesley compiled a prayer-book for his American 
followers, and to this day, the English Wesleyans use one, 
and Adam Clarke, the Methodist Commentator, remarked, 
" The Prayer-Book, next to the Bible, is the book of my un- 
derstanding and my heart." A form, moreover, tends to pre- 
serve from error. How could the Trinity be depressed, or 
the Virgin deified in a Church, where our Liturgy is used 1 
Dr. Buchanan, speaking of the Syrian Christians, who, by 
the use of forms, retained the essentials of Christianity, 
says, " Wo to the declining Church that has no Liturgy." 

Forms of Prater on the San Francisco. — "At a mo- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



35 



ment when hope was almost abandoned, despair on every 
countenance, and death in the most appalling form seeming 
inevitable, ' Do, sir, pray for us,' was the urgent request to 
a Reverend clergyman. Some one having said, ' Oh, sir, 
in this awful crisis, your Prayer-Book can be of no service 
to you' — the only response to this, by the faithful Herald of 
the Cross, the Missionary of the God of Mercy, was to fall 
on his knees, and with a fervor that penetrated every heart, 
he implored, in the solemn words of the Litany : 

" S O God the Father of Heaven, have mercy upon us, 
miserable sinners. 

" ' O God the Son, Redeemer of the World, have mercy 
upon us, miserable sinners. 

"'0 God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father 
and the Son, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners. 

" ' O Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity, Three Persons 
and One God, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners.' 

" The effect of this was electrifying. Tears were in every 
eye, and they all, as if with one heart and one voice, joined 
in supplicating their God, to save them from a watery grave, 
themselves, their wives, and their children — when Pie, who 
rides on the whirlwind, directs the storm, and commands 
the winds and the waves, 'peace, be still, 'and there was a 
calm, raised their sinking hearts, granting the earnest 
prayers of the humble suppliants." 

XX. 

"The service is so long." — Here there is a difference 
of opinion. The Church in its appointment thought it of 
just the right length; sufficiently comprehensive to em- 
brace every necessary want, and yet not so long as to be 
tedious. You differ from the Church, and think the hour 
and a half of prayers in the morning and eyening combined, 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



— too long. Suppose you try and shorten it : you cannot 
compress the language, as it conveys its meaning in the 
fewest words ; nor can you remove the substance, for in the 
removal of any petition, thousands of voices would ex- 
claim, " spare that tree, touch not a single bough." Perhaps 
you are one of those who find all prayer too long, never 
having time to pray even privately. No wonder, then, that 
you find our service too long ; your mind is on every thing 
else but the prayer ; and you would not care if God were 
not addressed at all. You are a spectator of the service, and 
not a performer ; you do not respond, nor take any active 
part in the service, for you are engaged looking round, or 
thinking of your business, and feel no more interest in what 
is occurring, than you do in the reading of some annual 
charity report. But if you will, " with humble voice and 
pure heart," unite in the confession, prayers and thanksgiv- 
ing, the length will disappear. A foreign language would 
doubtless prove tiresome, but when you understand it, every 
word has a meaning : so, if you attend to the service not as 
foreign, but as that which, by attention, you may under 
stand, you will find yourself more concerned in asking par- 
don, than at first you would suppose ; you would conclude 
that an hour in the morning, and half an hour in the even- 
ing, are not too much " to render thanks for the great benefits 
received, to set forth God's most worthy praise, to hear God's 
most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite 
and necessary as well for the body as the soul." 



XXI. 

<! I cannot find the places." — Did you ever try ? Per- 
haps you have not cared to find them, and of course the 
places will not find themselves. It is sad to notice, that 
even some Episcopalians fail in understanding the Prayer- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 37 

Book sufficiently to know the various places, and the ap- 
propriate postures ; — whereas a little attention would 
prevent difficulty, for, the rules being permanent, once known, 
they would always be a sure guide. Suppose you try now 
to find them. On the third page of your Prayer-Book you 
will see an Index or "Table of Contents," and in it, nearly 
half way down the page, "The order for Daily Morning 
Prayer," with the number annexed. Turn to that number, 
and you will see a mark immediately before the words " The 
Minister," &c. This mark (^[), called a paragraph, is the 
notice of a rule to direct the minister and congregation. By 
reference to the same Index you will find the page of " The 
Selection of Psalms," or "the Psalter;" the "Table of 
Lessons ;" so also with " The Litany" — " Selection of Psalms 
in Metre," " The Order for the Administration of the 
Lord's Supper," a part of which is used after the " Psalms in 
Metre" every Sunday. You will also learn the pages where 
are " The Collects, Epistles and Gospels throughout the 
year." To find the particular Collect, etc., for each Sunday, 
the easiest plan is to consult a Church Almanac, or a Church 
paper. The Collect, etc. for one Sunday being found, and a 
mark placed there, you will have no difficulty with the next 
Sunday. Should any unforeseen case arise, any Episcopal 
friend will assist you in understanding it. It is not hard to 
find the places if you seek them : but the stranger who, 
passing through a city, will not take the trouble to read the 
street-names on each corner, must lay the blame of his tire- 
some walk, not on the city but on his own negligence.* 

XXII. 

" Your church is too exclusive." — How so 1 all socie- 
ties must in some degree exclude those not members, other- 
wise they cease to be societies. So every society must have 



4 



* Bea page 111. 



38 



LEGION. 



OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



a particular mode of electing officers, which is exclusive of all 
others not so elected. Hence we exclude all from preaching 
or administering the Sacraments, who are not appointed by 
the only authority we recognize, and you do precisely the 
same, for you do not allow every one to rise and preach who 
thinks himself qualified, or whom others think qualified, un- 
less those others be the particular board of examiners you 
recognize. Should a member of your congregation attempt 
to preach or administer the Sacraments without the approba- 
tion of the proper committee, you would not only not receive 
him, but reject him for Schism. So, you perceive, our 
Church is not more exclusive than yours : the difference be- 
ing not in the exclusiveness, but m our belief that Episcopacy 
is the Divinely appointed authority, while you believe such 
authority depends upon human expediency. Now, if you 
will prove that our claim to the Divine institution of Epis- 
copacy is not founded " on Holy Scripture and the testimony 
of ancient authors," you will prove that we are too exclusive, 
but until you do so we cannot surrender a principle which 
we believe to be based on God's word and primitive practice. 

In an address to the convention of Mississippi, Bishop 
Otey well defines our Church's position in this respect : " much 
misrepresentation prevails in regard to the views of Episco- 
palians in declining to unite with other denominations in 
what are usually denominated, 'revival meetings,' 'pro- 
tracted meetings,' and the like. Our practice in these cases 
is regulated by a desire to preserve harmony and peace in 
conformity with the vows each clergyman makes, at his 
ordination, to 'maintain and set forward quietness, peace, and 
love among all Christian people,' no less than by a regard to 
principles of ecclesiastical order and worship." *** "With- 
out controversy, the order of the Gospel as set forth in the 
New Testament is as much a revelation from God as the 
faith of the Gospel, and equally binding on men. Nor is it 
conceivable how the institution of Christianity itself could 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 39 

have been kept up and perpetuated in our world without 
the preservation of its order. As, therefore, in some de- 
nominations, articles of faith, and in nearly all the derivation 
of their ministry, are in direct opposition to our views of 
revealed truth, Episcopalians cannot yield to the demands 
which they make of acknowledgment in regard to the Scrip- 
tural and Apostolic foundation on which they claim their 
ecclesiastical organization to rest, without such a surrender 
of their own principles as would mark their whole religious 
profession with inconsistency and indifference." 

Bishop Hobart, in his Charge of 1817, admirably says, 
" God searches and mercifully judges the purposes of the 
heart, and assuredly honest purity of intention and zealous en- 
deavor to know and do His will, will not fail of a reward 
from Him who is no respecter of persons, but is the equal 
and kind parent of all the human race. Still, charity, though 
it should always soften the rigid features of truth, cannot 
change her divine character nor dispense with her sacred 
obligations." 

XXIII. 

"I could not get ready in time." — And unfortunately 
some persons never are ready, but when all the congregation 
are quietly listening, perhaps to the first lesson, these persons 
come up the aisle. From their never being in time for 
the confession of sins, one might think that they had no sins 
to confess. There is one sin, however, which they have for- 
gotten, and which should be acknowledged next Sunday, and 
that is, their disturbing the devotions of the congregation, and 
their serious interruption of the minister. What can be the 
reason they are so late invariably 1 Is it to attract atten- 
tion ? Charity answers no, and puts the best construction on 
their lateness. They are perhaps thoughtless, but then, they 
are not so thoughtless as to other things. They can reach 



40 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



the car in time, — and why not be in time for service 1 ? 
Is an engagement with man more important than one with 
God 1 ? Some one suggests that the evil would be cured by a 
change of hour ; so it would, if the fault were in the time, 
but if service began at noon, — some would still be too 
late. The sight of a person habitually late at church, reminds 
one, of those virgins who did not fill their lamps in time, and 
hence sought entrance in vain. Sometimes lateness is un- 
avoidable, and therefore excusable. In such case, "better 
late than never ;" but even then, there will be no interrup- 
tion, if you will pause at the door until the next change of 
posture. 

" Late at church, unless for causes unavoidable, is a sign 
of a heart not right with God. To say nothing of the 
indecency of disturbing the other worshippers by noisy 
footsteps, with what reverence can such a one regard the 
presence of Him, of whom it is said, ' the Lord is in His 
Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.' 
How would these irreverent worshippers venture into the 
presence of an earthly sovereign with such a badge of con- 
tempt in their hand. No, they would fear to offend a king, 
but not the King of kings. The many sins involved in their 
want of punctuality in attendance at God's house, make it a 
very grave evil. Their own devotions are hindered, those of 
others disturbed. Their minister is grieved, their God slighted, 
and all for what % A trifling indulgence of sloth which a little 
resolution would overcome." 

" Oh I be drest ; 

Stay not for the other pin : why thou hast lost 

A joy for it worth worlds. Thus hell doth jest 
Away thy blessings, and extremely flout thee, 
Thy clothes being fast, but thy soul loose about thee. 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



41 



XXIY. 

" My clothes are not suitable for church." — Then, 
of course, you do not show yourself in any company, for if 
you do, your clothes are suitable for church. To go to other 
places with the apparel you have, and yet stay from church, 
must be on the supposition that it is a kind of fair for the 
exhibition of finery, and each exhibitor a candidate for prizes. 
The Jews in public worship rent their garments, because of 
their sins : some of our people, on the contrary, will not go 
to worship unless they have a bonnet or coat just from the 
maker's hand, thereby showing that they regard the opinion 
of their neighbors more than the favor of their Maker. And 
to make the absurdity more glaring, most of the congregation 
are engaged in worshipping God, not having come to notice 
whether clothes were old or new. There may, indeed, be 
some few triflers who come to make remarks ; — but the 
smile or sneer of such will not affect any sensible person. 
Be neat in your dress, and you will be respected more for 
wearing clothes that are old, than for wearing new which you 
have not the means to pay for : and whether you please 
man or not, you please God and your own conscience. This 
excuse which keeps you from church, has its source in vanity, 
and when you know your own heart and the account to be 
given to God, you w r ill experience no difficulty in this respect. 
Should you not have everything exactly as you wish, you will 
have what is more important, " the clothing of humility." 



XXV. 

" He must have meant me." — How do you know that 
the minister meant you ? Did he tell you so, or point his 
finger at you, or call you by name 1 No ! but you are sure 
4* 



42 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



of it, and for the best of reasons : a guilty conscience accus- 
ingly said, " Thou art the man." Then, your quarrel is with 
conscience, not with the minister. A sermon is intended 
to warn against some sin, or excite to some duty. It is 
preached to all : if any have been guilty of the sin, or 
neglected the duty, it is designed for such. If they have 
not been guilty, it is no otherwise intended than to guard 
them against a temptation ; but as the minister cannot see 
the heart, the existence of any sin can be known only to con- 
science and to God. The minister, in God's name, says, 
" Thou shalt remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," 
and " thou shalt not covet." Of course, he means all covet- 
ous persons and Sabbath breakers, (for a sermon without 
meaning would be a waste of time), and if you have been guilty 
of these or any other sins, he certainly means you, and your 
duty is to receive the reproof thankfully and to profit by it : 
many persons, however, not only continue in the sin itself, 
but commit another one in being angry at the reprover. 
While some persons are so self-important, that the minister 
can preach no sermon without meaning them, there are many 
more who take no suggestion, make no application, and the 
arrow of truth glances from them and buries itself in their 
neighbor. In vain is their character sketched ; in vain is the 
finger pointed at their besetting sin. They look around to 
see the effect upon some one else : a searching sermon does 
them indeed real good, — " the best they ever heard," — but its 
merit consists in suiting " Tompkins" so well. Such per- 
sons are much more generous with the sermon, than with 
their contributions, for they give all their share (and that 
a very large part) to their acquaintances. They resemble 
the miser who, on hearing a sermon on covetousness, remarked 
that it suited so many people, that he would really go around 
collecting to-morrow, and was sure that people would increase 
their liberality. This class is much more numerous than 
the first, and no sermon will ever reach them, until they hear 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



43 



that on the last clay, and then there will be no mistake as to 
its meaning. 

XXYI. 

" Call again." — And accordingly the church collector 
leaves you, disheartened at his fruitless call : his patience has 
been tried, and much of his valuable time lost through these 
excuses. But this is not all ; the vestry are unable to pay 
the salaries which are due. Your minister, particularly, who 
depends altogether upon what the church promises, must 
perhaps make his scanty fare still scantier, deny himself the 
most necessary books and furniture, and bear in silence that 
keen sense of injury which " call again " inflicts : or he may 
be contemplating a removal from the congregation he truly 
loves, to another where he will not be exposed to such dis- 
appointment. And this injustice is the more glaring, in that 
he may have exhausted his means in preparing to give his 
congregation suitable instruction, and is ready to promote at 
all times their welfare, and to administer the church's offices 
from the cradle to the grave. If you loved Christ as you 
should, you would delight in supporting Christ's ministers. 
You would deem it a privilege to contribute, and would not 
surrender your means, only to avoid the collector's impor- 
tunity. You would have your dues ready for the call, and 
thus you would bless the church and bless yourself also : for 
" what a man soweth that shall he also reap." Tell the tax- 
gatherer to " call again," for he can afford to wait, but do not 
tell the church collector so. 

XXYII. 

"The times are so hard." — But did you ever know it 
otherwise in church matters % Let any benevolent plan be 
proposed at any time, and immediately the times are found 
to be hard. Money becomes scarce, and will command so 



44 LEGION. OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

much per cent, a month ; the imports exceed the exports, 
and the church's self-denying friend, who came for a donation, 
goes away with a lecture. But let any new fashion be intro- 
duced, or a famous singer come upon the stage, or some po- 
litical measure require furtherance, or any improvement con- 
necting distant parts of the country, and at once " hard times" 
smooths his wrinkled brow, and pours his treasure on the 
table, until the church is named, when the money is grasped 
as though the collector were begging for himself, and not for 
Him whose agent he is ! Many are liberal where pride, 
vanity, or ambition makes demands upon them. For amuse- 
ments alone, in the city of New York, ten thousand dollars 
were nightly spent when times were very hard. France 
must yield her silks and wines without cessation, and no cost 
is spared on a single entertainment; but economy begins, 
when God requires your benevolence. The times with you 
are undoubtedly hard, but it is you that make them so : for, 
devoting all available means to self- gratification, there is, of 
course, nothing left for charity. You are harder than the 
times ; but it will be still harder to leave the treasures of 
earth, without making preparation for treasures in heaven. 

XXYHI. 

" Charity begins at home." — Home is then the scene of 
your benevolence ; the interest which is not found for dis- 
tant places, all centres in home. But is it so 1 By no 
means ; for when the claims of home are presented, some 
other excuse defeats the application. Charity begins at home, 
but she does not stay there, for then she would cease to be 
that charity which came from heaven to earth, and which 
does not cease expanding until the gospel is preached * to all 
nations." The heathen, indeed, are at our doors, but are you 
doing any thing for them; clothing them, educating them, and, 
above all, providing for their attendance on the means of 

i 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



45 



grace, preaching to them by causing them to hear preaching? 
By no means ; this is but an excuse for getting rid of an 
obligation which makes "every Christian a missionary." 
You pray " that God's way may be known upon earth, His 
saving health among all nations," but as this prayer costs 
nothing, while the corresponding action demands self-denial, 
no action is had, and the missionary scheme is found objec- 
tionable ; and, indeed, every scheme which requires the 
cheerful opening of hand and heart. If charity had staid at 
home, you would never have heard of the Saviour ; the early 
settlers of this country would have died without the gospel, 
for Dr. Bray says, that on pleading the need of America for 
ministers and books, his greatest obstacle was the assertion, 
" that the Church's charity was wanted for the poor in Eng- 
land." And shall we, who owe every thing to missions, 
confine their benefits to ourselves ? 

"Shall we whose souls are lighted 
"With wisdom from on high, 
Shall we to men benighted 
The lamp of life deny ?" 

XXIX. 

"I must be just before being generous." — Certainly; 
but if you mean that the claims which the Church has on you 
are those that come from generosity alone, you are greatly 
mistaken. Debt to a fellow man may have a greater legal, 
but not a greater moral obligation, than debt to Christ through 
His Church. The Church is not so much obliged to you, as 
you are to it, and therefore in discharging the Church's claims 
upon you, you are not generous so much as you are just ; its 
gifts to you being infinitely more valuable than yours to it. 
It was a remark of an ancient divine, that " those we should 
count our benefactors, who gave us an opportunity of doing 
them service." According to which principle, the Church is 



46 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



generous to you in giving you the privilege of exercising that 
charity, without which all our doings are nothing worth. A 
legal debt to man is indeed inferior, in its extent, to the debt 
you owe the Church ; for, in the first place, in many instances 
you need not contract a legal debt ; and secondly, when con- m 
tracted, it can generally be paid : but the support of the Church 
is of unavoidable obligation, as all are obliged by God to be 
members of it. And this debt so far transcends our highest 
exertions, that we still are in arrears. Debt to man, collect- 
able by law, is thought to be more binding because some 
penalty is generally attached to non-payment, while ordinarily 
there is no penalty attached to neglect of Church dues, or if 
there is, it is rarely, if ever, enforced. But penalties do not 
make an offence, they only define its punishment. If all laws 
for the collection of debts from man to man were abolished 
to-morrow, the moral obligation, that which exists in the sight 
of God and every honest man, would not be in the slightest 
degree affected. So, though no human penalty enforce the 
payment of Church dues, the obligation remains in the sight 
of God, who has penalties of His own both here and here- 
after. 

But it may be said there are legal Church dues, such as pew 
rents and subscriptions, which, voluntarily assumed, are bind- 
ing, and which given up are not binding, and that, in such a 
case, all claims of the Church become void. Such, however, 
is not a correct conclusion. Support in the shape of pew-rent 
or subscription may cease, but support itself, in some other 
form, is just as obligatory, supposing a person's ability to 
continue; for obligation to support the Church is not mea- 
sured v by pew-rent, but by ability. The various States of 
our country, in making dues to the Church collectable, as any 
other dues from man to man, which can be contracted or 
not, at pleasure, mainly intended to give the Church the 
ability to meet the legal claims against it, and thus avoid the 
penalty of not meeting them. But these States never con- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 47 

templated defining the limits of the Church's benevolence, nor 
the limits of each person's obligation to the Church. Nor did 
Vestries design any thing of the kind in the assessment of pew 
rates, which were meant to preserve the Church by meeting 
its necessary expenses. It is true that a person's pew-rent or 
subscription may be to the extent of his ability ; in which 
case, if given with the proper spirit, it is as acceptable to 
Christ as the offering of the widow. But, in the greater 
number of cases, the payment of the pew-rent or annual 
subscription does not measure the obligation, as where per- 
sons in the clear receipt of one or two thousand dollars 
yearly ; subscribe or rent to the extent of five, ten or twenty 
dollars ; a proportion which has no parallel in the ancient 
Jewish or early Christian Church. If Church rents were 
abolished, the Scriptural obligation would remain in force, to 
give or rather return according to self-denying ability ; a re- 
turn which is not a generous gift merely, but a just thank- 
offering which can never repay benefits received, and which 
still leaves the most liberal giver " an unprofitable servant." 
Until the moral claim of the Church, distinct from that 
which is legal, be better understood, the Church's support 
must fluctuate according to the capricious feelings of each 
member, and the annual reports "of our various Societies will 
be a stereotyped tale of discouragement. But let the prin- 
ciple be established that we do not confer a favor on the 
Church by our gifts, as the Church does upon us by their re- 
ception, — that our offerings are privileges, and then the 
Church treasury will be filled by the double hand of Justice 
and Generosity. 

The principle of giving to the Church according to our 
ability, implies a fixed proportion between our gifts and our 
income, and an income not merely derived from receipts, but 
from self-denying savings. It further implies that this sum 
be set apart as a sacred deposit, ready for the various objects 
which are presented in the Church. This proportion differs 



48 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

with various individuals. Some give a tenth, some more, 
some less; "but all could arrive at some fixed satisfactory 
standard, if they would only consider what the Church ought 
to do, compared with what she actually does; her sublime 
mission to the bodies and souls of men, contrasted with the 
mean support which her children give her. The statement 
that the Church has a claim on all her members according to 
ability, is of course not applicable to cases of real inability. 
But, then, the poor have a just claim upon the Church, and 
how is this claim met? Why, because it is not legal, and 
only moral, it is thought by many to be no claim at all, and, 
with dropping a dime or two in the communion plate, the 
whole subject is dismissed or transferred to the guardian- 
ship of the State, which indeed provides for the body and 
mind, but ignores the soul. Not until the just claims of the 
Church on the ability of her members are fully met, will the 
Church have the power to meet the just claims of inability 
upon her. 

There is a remarkable circumstance in reference to this 
subject of generosity after justice. Many persons, in speak- 
ing of their direct obligations to Almighty God, take a pecu- 
liar delight in His attribute of Mercy, and will scarcely hear 
of His bearing the sword of Justice. But when it comes to 
the claims of the Church upon them, they are wonderfully 
struck with the importance of Justice, and poor Generosity 
must wait until sent for. Such persons would receive no in- 
jury from studying the parable of the unjust creditor, who 
was very willing to receive mercy from his Lord, but who was 
unwilling to have patience with his debtor. 

XXX. 

" I will throw in my mite." — And down falls into the 
plate a half-dime, a venturesome " quarter," or perhaps, this 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 49 

new "church money," with its star, reminding us of the wise 
men. This mite excuse is a very common one, because sup- 
posedly fortified by Scripture ; but such is not the case, for 
the poor widow threw in " two mites :" so, Mr. Smith, we 
shall expect hereafter double your usual offering. But to 
carry out this mite principle, we must further remember she 
gave of her penury, if not the whole, at least a part of her 
means of livelihood, while the much larger gifts of the rich 
men, being merely from their abundance, were actually less, 
according to ability, than hers. Now, Mr. S., suppose you 
imitate the widow, not only in the two mites, but in giving 
from your penury, or even from moderate self-denial : why, 
the silver mites would blush into gold. O how little this is 
understood ! How few dispense occasionally with a dessert, 
that the church may have bread! . And there is no immediate 
prospect of this mite system being shamed away, unless in- 
deed, the information reach us that one of our clergy came 
to his death through insufficient food, or clothing. Such an 
event, read of at our breakfast tables, would rouse our mem- 
bers " to take into consideration the expediency of devising 
some means whereby they that preach the Gospel should not 
starve of the Gospel." 

There are, however, some who have not even a mite for 
the Lord's treasury: to such, the following narrative is 
respectfully commended : 

" The Brown Towel." — " One who has nothing, can give 
nothing," said Mrs. Sayers, the sexton's wife, as the ladies of 
the sewing society were busily engaged packing the contents 
of a large box, destined for a Western missionary. m 

" A person who has nothing to give, must be poor, indeed," 
said Mrs. L., as she deposited a pair of warm blankets in the 
already well-filled box. 

Mrs. Sayers looked at the last-named speaker with a glance 
which seemed to say, "You, who never have known self- 
5 



50 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



denial, cannot feel for me," and remarked, "You surely think 
one can be too poor to give." 

"I once thought so, but have learned from joyful experience, 
that no better investment can be made, even from the depths 
of poverty, than lending to the Lord." 

Seeing the ladies listening attentively to the conversation, 
Mrs. L. continued, " Perhaps as our work is finished, I can 
do no better than to give you my experience on the subject. 
It may be the means of showing you that God will reward 
the cheerful giver. 

" During the first twenty-eight years of my life, I was sur- 
rounded with wealth ; and not until I had been married for 
nine years, did I know a want which money could satisfy, or 
feel the necessity of exertion. Reverses came, with fearful 
suddenness ; and, before I had recovered from the blow, I found 
myself the wife of a very poor man, with five little children, 
dependent upon our exertions. 

" From that hour I lost all thought of any thing, but the 
care of my family. Late hours and hard work were my 
portion, and to my unskilled hands it seemed at first a bitter 
lot. My husband strove anxiously to gain a subsistence, and 
barely succeeded. We changed our place of residence several 
times, in hopes of doing better, but without improvement. 

" Every thing seemed against us. Our well-stocked ward- 
robe had become so exhausted, that I felt justified in absenting 
myself from the house of God with my children, for want of 
suitable apparel. While in this low condition, I went to 
church one evening, where my poverty-stricken appearance 
would escape notice, and took my seat near the door. An 
agent from the West preached, and begged contributions to 
the Home Missionary cause. His appeal brought tears to 
my eyes, and painfully reminded me of my past days of 
prosperity, when I could give from my abundance to all who 
called upon me. It never entered my mind that the appeal 
for assistance in any way concerned me, with my poor children 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



51 



banished from the house of God by poverty, while I could 
only venture out under the friendly protection of darkness. 
I left the church more submissive to my lot, with a prayer in 
my heart that those whose consciences had been addressed 
might respond. I tried in vain to sleep that night. The words 
of the text, ' Give, and it shall be given unto you ; good 
measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running 
over, shall men give unto your bosom,' seemed continually 
sounding in my ears. The eloquent entreaty of the speaker 
to all, however poor, to give a mite to the Lord, and receive 
the promised blessing, seemed addressed to me. I rose early 
the next morning, and looked over all my worldly goods in 
search of something worth bestowing, but in vain ; the pro- 
mised blessing seemed beyond my reach. 

" Hearing that the ladies of the church had filled a box for 
the missionary's family, I made one more effort to spare 
something. All was poor and threadbare ; what should I do ? 
At last I thought of my towels. I had six, of coarse brown 
linen, but little worn. They seemed a scanty supply for a 
family of seven, and yet I took one from the number, and 
putting it in my pocket, hastened to the house where the box 
was kept, and quietly slipped it in. 

" I returned home with a light heart, feeling that my 
Saviour's eye had seen my sacrifice, and would bless my effort 
to do right. 

" From that day, success attended all my husband's efforts 
in business. In a few months our means increased so that 
we were able to attend church, and send our children to the 
Sabbath-school, and before ten years had passed, our former 
prosperity had returned fourfold. ' Good measure, pressed 
down, and shaken together, and running over,' had been 
given us. 

" It may seem superstitious to you, my dear friends, but 
we date all our success in life to God's blessing, following 
that humble gift of deep poverty. 



52 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



" Wonder not that from that day I deem few too poor to 
give, and that I am a firm believer in God's promise that 
he will repay with interest even in this life all we lend to 
him." 

Glances of deep interest unmixed with envy, were cast 
from the windows at Mrs. L., as, after bidding the ladies adieu, 
she stepped into her luxurious carriage. 

Her consistent benevolence had proved to all, that in her 
prosperity she still retained the same Christian spirit which 
in her days of poverty had led to the bestowal of the brown 
towel. 

" Well," exclaimed Mrs. Sayers, " if we all had such a 
self-denying spirit we might fill another box at once. I'll 
never again think I am too poor to give." 

XXXI. 

" I will give as much as ■ Williams.' " — And Williams, 
who is thus chosen as the standard of contribution, is known 
to give as little as any member of the congregation ; so that 
this is an excellent mode of refusing to give for some charitable 
object, and at the same time retaining the credit of liberality. 
But who is Williams, that you adhere so closely to him ? Christ 
says we are to give from self-denying ability, and not accord- 
ing to the deeds of others. Besides, you do not understand 
his accounts. He may really be unable to give half so much 
as you think he should, and he may have perfectly satisfactory 
reasons for his conduct, which he does not think it necessary 
to disclose. And supposing him to give far less than his 
ability ; if you insist on reaching his standard of contribution, 
you must also expect to reach his standard of contractedness, 
and consequently be exposed, as he is, to God's displeasure. 

No; let Williams do as he pleases, do you act as respon- 
sible for yourself to God. As it is, when A breaks his arm 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



58 



B looks around to notice how much C will give, thus showing 
a much more liberal disposition with his neighbor's money 
than with his own : thus almost every purse is closed until C 
opens his, and consequently benevolent enterprises languish 
and sometimes die, because one stands looking at another. 
However, the time is soon coming when you must surrender 
every thing, and you would do well " to make to yourself 
friends of the unrighteous mammon, that when ye fail they 
may receive you into everlasting habitations." 

XXXII. 

"I wish you success." — A very kind wish, if sincere; 
but when the wisher is one who can give substantial aid, yet 
substitutes wishes, he is mistaken in what he says. He does 
not wish success ; otherwise he would take, as in other things, 
the only mode to secure it : namely, his means and personal 
influence. Were every one to answer similarly, the collector 
would have on his book some five hundred wishes, which 
accomplish no other result than defeating the object : for 
should you not already know it, it is time that you be 
apprized of a secret, viz. : if you wish to kill any benevolent 
enterprise for Christ and His Church, do not oppose it 
directly, for that might excite the energies of its friends, and 
might lead to the supposition that you were close with your 
money, but "wish it success" and do nothing; say to the 
object " be warmed and filled, and yet give it not those things 
which are needful for it ;" decline any agency ; keep from its 
meetings ; and you will, as far as you can, kill it effectually. 
You will not be blamed, for did you not " wish it success, 
and always speak favorably of it?" A similar result may 
be attained by " feeling for its wants ;" " thinking on it ;" 
" intending to do something ;" but be sure you do nothing, 
or if the collector should call frequently, give him something, 
5* 



54 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



and for the remainder let him take your feelings. He will 
not trouble you soon again. If all others do as you do, he 
must abandon the work in despair. 

You feel! But how do you feel? five dollars' worth? two? 
one ? Dr. Johnson once told Boswell to " beware of these 
feeling men, for," says he, " they are very apt to pay their 
debts in feelings." If, however, debts are so paid, what will 
such men do with charities ? 



XXXIII. 

" So many calls." — For what purpose ? for the payment 
of numerous bills made for life's luxuries, — its pomps and 
vanities ? Oh no ! " so many calls for the Church :" that is, 
some six or eight objects a year are presented to our friend's 
consideration. He was called on only a month ago, and with 
that call he parries every other, just as the Indian holds up 
some prisoner he has taken to shield him from the arrows of 
his pursuers. He gave so much on such an occasion, and 
that is used as a scarecrow for all future collectors. It would 
seem that any one loving Christ would rejoice at the increas- 
ing calls to extend His kingdom, and would expect that 
any once made should increase. Christ, through his Church, 
takes the attitude of a suppliant, that His people may know 
the superior blessedness of giving to receiving : and yet He 
is denied, because the calls are so frequent ! But He does 
not call upon you as often as you call upon Him, for from 
Him you daily receive your breath, your reason, and all the 
comforts of this life. He is called on to protect you by His 
providence, and to supply mercies as numerous as minutes. 
Above all, He is called on to spare you under provocations 
of ingratitude which you daily heap upon Him. And yet, 
with all these calls, never has " His arm been shortened, or 
His ear heavy." But when He calls on you, and that, too, 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



55 



for your own benefit, you treat Him as some troublesome 
mendicant. " Freely ye have received " and sparingly do ye 
give. Suppose He should take you at your word, and say, 
" Yes, I have called too often, I will do so no more :" then, 
indeed, there would be no more calls on your charity, but then, 
also, would you lose your ability to be charitable ; your talents, 
unimproved, would be taken away. If your life were spared, 
which still would be an exercise of His mercy, you would 
wander abroad an outcast, exposed to every stress of weather, 
and sensible of your former blessings by their withdrawal. 
But if there are so many calls on you, suppose you retaliate, 
and make calls on other people. " By no means," you reply ; 
" you would sooner give than do that ; you could not think 
of exposing your feelings in such a way." Very well ! then, 
of course, you will consider that those who call on you have 
feelings also, and you will doubtless be particularly careful 
to render their stony path as smooth as possible ; at least, 
you will not inflict another pang in addition to the many they 
have already experienced in their arduous round. The truth 
is, that a person who for Christ's sake, undertakes a collect- 
ing tour, approaches as near a moral martyr as is attainable 
in the present state of the Church. He, or rather she (for 
men are not generally courageous enough for this,) deserves 
encouragement, not only for the worthy object in view, but 
for cheerfully undergoing that laceration of feelings which 
every collector must experience. 

That there are so many calls, should be a cause of thank- 
fulness to every true friend of Christ. It shows that His 
kingdom is extending, and that the seed of past liberality is 
bearing, after many days, its fruit. But, further, the many 
calls are so many opportunities of securing God's blessing upon 
our temporal affairs. For, Holy Scripture declares, that, as 
we sow we shall reap ; and when the poor widow was about 
consuming her last provision, the gift from that morsel lo 
the prophet was so productive, that, " the barrel of meal did 



56 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



not waste, neither did the cruse of oil fail, until the Lord sent 
rain upon the land." An eminent saint once said, that " he 
was too poor not to give. He could not afford to be sparing 
in seed wheat and Baxter said, that " his affairs most suc- 
ceeded, when he was most liberal ; and since he had been 
more sparing in his charities, he had not so prospered." 
Says another, " I am as now able to increase my contribu- 
tions to five hundred dollars per annum, for the support of 
Christ's cause among my fellow men, and to pay it as 
promptly, as I was seventeen years ago to give twelve 
dollars per annum, when I first commenced my contribu- 
tions."* 

Should there be, therefore, " so many calls," if thou hast 
much, give plenteously ; if thou hast little, do thy diligence 
gladly, to give of that little : for so gatherest thou thyself a 
good reward in the day of necessity. 

" Restore to God his due, in tithe and time : 
A tithe purloined cankers the whole estate. 
Sundays observe. Think, when the bells do chime, 

'Tis angel's music ; therefore come not late — 
God then deals blessings : if a king did so, 
Who would not haste, nay give, to see the show. 



XXXIY. 

" I am not a member of the church." — And this is con- 
sidered a sufficient excuse for plunging into every species of 
vanity. It is thought that Church membership imposes re- 
straints which do not belong to persons who are not Church- 
members. But are you not a Church member % Were you 
not baptized ] Then you are one, and all the obligations of 
membership rest upon you. You reply, however, that " this 



* Spirit of Missions, for 1847. 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES 57 

was done without your consent." True ; but your consent is 
not necessary for entering into a covenant with God. In 
some cases, it is not necessary even to your making a 
covenant with man. By your natural birth, you became an 
American citizen, and are obliged to keep all the laws of 
your country, and yet your consent was never asked to those 
laws. So, in Baptism, God imposes duties upon you without 
your knowledge ; because, being your Maker and Preserver, 
He has a right so to do, much more than an earthly parent 
has to correct and instruct his child. You may indeed neglect 
your duties, but you cannot elude your responsibilities. But 
you mean that you are not a communicant, and, because not, 
have a greater license than if you were one ; you can do that 
with impunity " which a communicant cannot do." But is 
this so? Does the Church understand God as giving His 
commands thus : — "Thou who art a communicant, shalt have 
no other gods but me V By no means, for he addresses all 
His people : and you yourself acknowledge the obligation to 
obey some of these laws, and why not all % Why make a 
distinction where God has made none '? No ; your duty to 
repent comes not from admission to the Holy Communion, 
but from the relation you sustain to God as your Creator, 
Redeemer, and Sanctifier. It is true that participation in the 
communion increases our obligation, because, though it does 
not impose new duties on us, it gives us strength to perform 
those that are old ; and, sinning against additional grace, we 
have, of course, increased condemnation. By communion we 
publicly confess our obligation to keep all God's commands, 
and receive also help to fulfil it : but while by such confession 
more is expected of us than if we did not so confess, N the obli- 
gation itself to obey God, in all respects, is unaffected, and 
the penalty still continues. To pursue a course of worldly 
pleasure, and then to excuse ourselves on the ground that we 
are not communicants, is to justify the sin of worldliness by 
the excuse that we are committing another sin. You differ 



5b 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



from a communicant in no other respect than this : — -that, 
whereas he acknowledges that all God's commands bind him, 
and repents that he has not kept them as he should, and seeks 
in the Holy. Communion grace to do better, you do not con- 
fess that all of them bind you, nor repent of your sins (though 
requiring repentance as much as he), nor seek the grace of 
repentance in God's appointed way. 

XXXV. 

" I am not fit for communion." — And this is said with as 
much assurance as though it were a perfect justification for 
neglecting the Sacrament. Indeed, at first sight, it seems to 
pay a compliment to that ordinance, and then to take credit on 
the ground of humility. There is, indeed, a sense in which 
the best of persons are not fit, as is beautifully expressed in 
the words, " We are not worthy so much as to gather up the 
crumbs under Thy table." This, however, is a worthy un- 
worthiness, which sometimes keeps truly pious persons away, 
when it should be the very cause of their coming. But this 
is not the meaning of the excuse above mentioned. They 
who offer it are indeed not fit, because they do not repent of 
their unfitness, nor seek to amend. In truth, the subject gives 
them very little concern, and they meet the Saviour's express 
command by a mere excuse. Nor should they come : they 
would receive injury if they did so. Their sin is, not in staying 
from the Communion because they are unfit, but in not secur- 
ing the necessary fitness ; not repenting as they might ; not 
putting on the wedding garment offered for their acceptance. 
They will break Christ's command in one respect, because 
by their impenitence they are breaking it in another respect. 
And they shall find that two wrongs never make a right, 
particularly when done by the same person. Hear what the 
Church says to such: "If any man say, I am a grievous 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 59 

sinner, and therefore am afraid to come, wherefore, then, 
do ye not repent and amend ] When God calleth you, are 
ye not ashamed to say ye will not come V 

XXXYI. 

i 

" I am as good as some who do commune." — Very prob- 
ably : perhaps better. But what inference do you draw from 
this fact? That the Holy Communion is not necessary to 
procure you admission into heaven, because some communi- 
cants are evidently unfit ? Let us examine this argument a 
moment. It is the old fallacy, that the abuse of any object 
dispenses with its proper use. To be worthy communicants, 
so far as we know, is a necessary qualification for heaven, 
because of Christ's commands, and because universal obe- 
dience is the mark of angels above and pious men below. 
But " some communicants are a scandal." True : and did 
Christ ever say, that all communicants would be worthy ? 
On the contrary, He has told us that many who, on earth, 
had eaten and drunk in His presence, should at last be cast 
out. They complied, indeed, with the outward act ; but not 
having the proper spirit they failed. Now this unworthiness 
of communicants does not disprove, but rather confirms 
Christ's truth : and so far from keeping any one from the 
Lord's table, it should lead to that careful examination which 
is enjoined, in the same way that the danger of spurious 
characters in society should lead, not to a refusal of what 
is valuable, but to a proper discrimination of what is valuable 
and what is not. If communicants fall so far below your ideas 
of the correct standard, suppose you set them an example. 
But you must first get rid of that censorious disposition, 
which detects faults in others and then makes those faults an 
excuse for neglecting your own duty. 



60 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



XXXVII. 

"You may baptize my child at home." — The minister 
must be very unkind indeed who does not appreciate the 
favor conferred upon him by the permission, and very ob- 
stinate that he does not avail himself immediately of your 
offer ! If he continue firm in his position, be equally firm in 
yours, and send for some other minister who has not such 
scruples. But softly ; are you aware that the Church does 
not allow her ministers to baptize privately, except for 
weighty reasons ; and even then, should the child recover, it 
is to be brought to Church to be received into the congrega- 
tion? Are you aware that you confer no favor on the 
minister, and that if he seems solicitous as to an early baptism 
at the Church, it is not on his own account, but on yours and 
the child's % — that, by baptism, Christ conveys to your infant 
blessings superior to the richest legacy, and that you should 
be thankful that you may bring yonr infant to Him, as He 
commands and invites'? Would you have your minister 
violate rules he has promised to obey ; and, for the sake of 
gratifying you, offend the other parents of his congregation 1 
There is one ingenious (not ingenuous) mode by which you 
can secure the baptism at home : postpone the baptism until 
your child is dying, for then he will not refuse to come. 
Before coming to such a conclusion, it would be well to re- 
member the sinful disposition it exhibits. You believe bap- 
tism of some importance, otherwise it is not desirable, a mere 
form being but mockery. And yet you make what is im- 
portant to your infant depend on the uncertainty of its illness. 
You forfeit the certainty of the present, for a future which 
may shroud your child in death before the minister arrives. 
Christ calls you to suffer your child to come to Him, and, so 
far as you can, you forbid. You are ashamed of bringing 
your child to Jesus in public, but are willing to do so in 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



private ; you set at naught the prayers of the congregation 
in its behalf. And at the very time when you should be most 
grateful for deliverance from recent peril, your ingratitude 
manifests itself in indulged wilfulness. " Where is it mothers 
learn such love ?" Such a disposition is not only liable to 
God's anger hereafter, but even here there may be a call on 
God's mercy for relief, but no answer : for as " He is not the 
God of the dead only," neither is He of the afflicted only. 
Let such considerations induce you on the first opportunity to 
take your infant to the house of God. 

" Then happiest ye who blest 

Back to your arms your treasure take 
With Jesus' mark impressed, 
To nurse for Jesus' sake." 

Says Matthew Henry, "Parents should rejoice more at 
their children's baptism than at their birth." 



XXXVIII. 

"The sponsor's duty is too weighty for me." — It is 
pleasant to hear some one estimate properly the much ne- 
glected sponsor's office. But is it too weighty an undertaking 1 
Some person, in case of the parents' death or inability, should 
watch over the child's spiritual interests. They have chosen 
you as suitable for that purpose, and why should you decline 
so charitable a work 1 ? If the orphan's temporal affairs re- 
quired a guardian, there would be no want of friends and rel- 
atives to undertake that duty ; that w r ould not be too oner- 
ous : but is it not as necessary that some one should guard 
the orphan's heavenly inheritance ; some particular persons 
who may feel a special interest therein % Is the child's soul 
to be exposed because none will attend to it 1 " But the 
promises are beyond my ability. 1 cannot answer for its re- 
6 



G2 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



nouncing all sin, believing all God's word, and keeping all 
His commandments. 1 can hardly answer for myself, much 
less for another." From these remarks you evidently mis- 
understand the sponsor's duty. For the answers which you 
make to the minister, being for the child, do not bind you. 
The transaction is between Christ and the infant, the minister 
being Christ's agent, and the sponsor the infant's agent. 
And as what the minister says does not bind him personally, 
he acting in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost ; so what the sponsor says does not bind him per- 
sonally, he acting in the name of the infant. Such answers not 
only do not bind you, but they do not create the obligation 
which binds the child ; for in private baptism, where there are 
no sponsors, the child is bound by the act of baptism alone. 
What then, it may be asked, is the use of the sponsor's answers, 
if they do not bind the sponsor ? Their use is to express the 
nature of the covenant, which consists not only in privileges 
received, but in duties to be done ; to do for the unconscious 
child what you would do for a dumb adult, who, unable to 
speak, answered through your mouth as his interpreter; to 
place baptism in its true light before the people, that they may, 
be reminded of their obligations, and to keep before the spon- 
sors the great object of certain duties which, by the sponso- 
rial office, they do undertake, and which are, " to see that this 
infant be taught, so soon as he shall be able to learn, what a 
solemn vow, promise, and profession, he hath here made ;" to 
" call upon him to hear sermons, and chiefly" to " provide 
that he may learn the Creed, the Lord's prayer, and the Ten 
Commandments, and all other things which a Christian ought 
to know and believe to his soul's health." These, and the 
other qualifications of sponsors expressed in the exhortation 
in the Public Baptism of Infants, are perfectly practicable. 
If these be done and the child yet be lost, the sponsor is in 
no way responsible. Says Bishop Griswold, in his Pastoral 
Address to the Eastern Diocese, " It is an error to suppose 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



03 



that the promises of baptism are made by sponsors in their 
own name and behalf. The whole engagement is made in the 
name of the child, and nothing more or less is required and 
intended. The sponsors express audibly that engagement 
which baptism lays on the infant ; they act as agents for an- 
other in the performance of a charitable work, and what they 
engage is not for themselves, but for the child only. . . . They 
promise to perform nothing, not even that they will teach the 
child religion, or bring him. up in the faith and fear of God. 
But it is highly necessary that this should, by some one or 
more, be done : in the nature of the thing it is most proper, 
and it is generally expected that they who present the child 
for baptism, should see to the performance of this most essen- 
tial duty And accordingly the Church, as she ought, enjoins 
it upon them. ' It is your parts and duties to see that this in- 
fant be taught.' This is no part of their verbal engagement, 
but in the reason of the thing, as also from the authority of 
the Church, and the general understanding of Christians, it 
justly rests upon them, and would so rest were no responses 
made." It should further be noticed, that in the selection of 
sponsors, care should be taken to select piously disposed 
Episcopalians, so that the duties they undertake may be faith- 
fully performed. 



XXXIX. 

" I DO NOT FEEL CAPABLE OF TEACHING IN SUNDAY SCHOOL." 

— Then try to raise your capacity to the requisite standard, 
and do not permit this excuse to deter you. You have 
evidently proper conceptions of the work ; that it is one of 
difficulty and patience ; and you have, properly, humble views 
of yourself, which is much better than to think the work a 
light thing, or yourself above it. But how can you speak so 
confidently of your capacity when you have not tried if? 



64 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

Perhaps if you entered upon it heartily, you might find your- 
self more successful than you suppose. The qualifications 
are : punctuality in school attendance, steady application, pre- 
paring by previous study the appointed lessons from Scripture 
and the Catechism, meeting with the teachers on the appointed 
occasions, and visiting the scholars, to promote, by God's 
blessing, their spiritual welfare and that of their parents. 
Now this does not demand great learning. It is what you 
are capable of doing, and your capacity will increase by ex- 
ercise. You will understand your duty better and take a 
pleasure in it, so that you shall consider it a privilege. And 
you shall succeed in planting germs of truth in youthful minds, 
which will, in some cases at least, bear eternal fruit. If you 
work heartily, you will certainly be capable of doing more. 
It being a law of God that whosoever improves what he already 
has, to him shall be given more. " Teaching we learn, and 
giving we retain." In the beginning you will of course feel 
a degree of awkwardness, which will disappear as you ad- 
vance. Every intelligent adult is then capable of taking a 
class, if he will. There are, however, pressing reasons for 
your entering on the work at the invitation of your minister ; 
and the first is, that though these little ones have parents, they 
are, for all practical purposes, spiritual orphans, since they 
hear nothing at home of Christ except the blasphemy of His 
name. They are surrounded with every circumstance that 
will ruin their souls, and they need instruction as much as 
Chinese children, educated in the schools of the missionaries 
sent by our Church. And further, if allowed to grow up thus, 
they will become antagonists of the Church, disseminaters of 
evil, and pests of society. They will become the parents of 
similar children, thus propagating sin, like leprosy, from 
generation to generation. Now, perhaps, the evil may be 
checked, while in a few years it will be too late, for then 
they will be beyond the opportunity of instruction. Is 
there no one to take charge of this class of spiritual rag- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 65 

gedness 1 and must the minister of Christ appeal in vain to 
numbers of disengaged men and women, whose only incapa- 
city is in the will % Must he be met with that chilling plea, 
" I pray thee, have me excused V Where is that charity 
without which all our doings are nothing worth 1 Shame on 
Christians who can be aware of the wants of fellow beings, 
and yet, like the Levite, look on with unconcern. It is un- 
doubtedly true that there are persons in the Church who 
cannot, for a variety of reasons, teach in a Sunday School. 
Such persons are not likely to be asked. But when an appeal 
is made to you, by proper authority, for this purpose, you 
should consider that it is not only in behalf of these little 
ones, but of yourself. The compassion you are asked to ex- 
ercise is designed to embrace your own internal state as well 
as theirs, for you must be aware of a great deficiency of 
grace which, unless exercised, may leave you altogether. 
The very life of the Christian consists in the active exercise 
of the talent God has given him. But if you hide it away, it 
shall be lost, and you shall be punished as wickedly slothful : 
and if you will look around in the Church, you will see it full 
of spiritual consumptives, always having some excuse when 
anything is to be done: resembling coals which, having parted 
with all that is combustible, present a residue that neither 
will burn itself or permit others to burn. These try the 
patience of every one in earnest, and impede every laudable 
effort. Disciples they are, frozen through inactivity. Now, 
unless you wish to be one of these spiritual paupers, be ac- 
tive ; and where can you be better employed than in taking 
a class in' a Sunday School, should an opportunity present 
itself, and should your minister make a call upon you 1 And 
when you do begin, be not half-hearted, half-coming, half-visit- 
ing, half-teaching, requiring always to be stimulated to your 
duty, for, much as the Church wants teachers, she does not 
want such. She wants real exercise from self-denial, without 
which neither yourself or class will derive any benefit. And 
6* 



66 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 

you should further be informed, that if the members of the 
Church will not exercise their Christian charity, they must 
exercise some other qualities ; their sloth, their self-indulgence, 
their covetousness. As the capacity for these expands, the 
capacity for every generous effort correspondingly contracts. 
You must exercise yourself in some way ; you must teach in 
some school, and the question is whether it sTiall be that of the 
world or the Church ? You must cultivate some dispositions, 
and the question is, shall they be sinful or holy 1 

Rouse to some high and holy work of love, 
And thou an augel's happiness shalt know — 

Shalt bless the earth ; whilst in the world above 
The good by thee begun shalt onward flow, 
In many a branching stream, and wider grow. 

The seed which in these few and fleeting hours 
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow, 

Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, 

And yield thee fruit divine in heaven's immortal bowers. 



XL. 

" I have no influence." — Perhaps not for good, but then 
you have some for evil. Are you sincere in your meaning 
that you really have no influence 1 Suppose that some one 
else were to say " that it was of no consequence what you 
said or did, as you had no influence with any one," how angry 
would you be at the ■ remark, and how soon would you show 
him the contrary ! Yes ; you have influence upon your rela- 
tions and your circle of acquaintances, and you can move them 
by your example, conversation and prayers. Were you even 
in the cell of a dungeon, your writings, thoughts, and prayers, 
might penetrate the bars. You mean you have no influence 
in the Church. But there again you are mistaken, for by 
your coldness and neglect you are injuring the Church, being 
a stumbling-block in the way of others. God has put it upon 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 67 

you to stem the progress of error, and your doing nothing 
does incalculable harm in allowing the flood to enter into the 
Church, into your family, into your heart. Mark that person 
in his "Beneficial Society," in his business, at an election; 
how he affects a whole circle around him : but in the Church, 
a paralysis seizes him and he can do nothing ; that is, he will 
not do it. God sent you into the world to be influential, and 
placed before you proper objects. You may indeed direct 
your energies in another direction, but then you become an 
agent of evil, and severe shall be your punishment. A 
learned writer says, " God furnishes men with bills of credit, 
but few draw to their full allowance:" some indeed will not 
draw at all. History is full of instances of the greatest re- 
sults produced by the slightest cause. A little captive maid 
was once the cause of curing a great man of his leprosy, and 
thus showing the power of God. Small as you may suppose 
yourself in the Church, you may, with whole heartedness, do 
much. You are unjust to yourself. Make the experiment, 
and in due season you shall reap if you faint not ; and when 
you leave the world, instead of men saying that your life was 
useless, the results of your activity shall remain, and though 
dead you shall speak when the marble of your tomb shall 
have crumbled to dust. You mean that you cannot produce 
any great results. You cannot move society as many do by 
their wealth or eloquence. You thus judge of influence by 
some popular commotion, but console yourself with the re- 
flection that little things, multiplied by eternity, are more 
momentous than great things multiplied by time ; that he 
who discharges his duties to those around him, exerts an in- 
fluence which God approves, and which He will continue when 
many events which so figure in history shall be forgotten. 
One of our eminent statesmen once remarked that "picayune 
compliments" went further than " great kindnesses." In like 
manner, numerous picayune duties are more influential than 
the doing of some great thing at occasional intervals; for an 



GS 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



interval must elapse, otherwise, in public estimation, the event 
■will not be great. It may be, however, that duties apparently 
so trifling may arrest more attention than you suppose. 
Angels may be watching every step of your Christian course 
with intense solicitude. Whether this be so or not, God has 
given you influence, and objects on which to exercise it. He 
notices every act, and you are pleasing him just as much as 
if you governed empires or moulded senates. Ever bear in 
mind that your influence is eternal ; you shall kindle a light 
that will shine either as stars, or as brands of eternal burning. 

A little particle of rain 

That from a passing cloud descended, 

"Was heard thus idly to complain — 
" My brief existence now is ended : 

Outcast alike of earth and sky, 

Useless to live, unknown to die." 

It chanced to fall into the sea, 

And there an open shell received it ; 

And after years how rich was he 

Who from its prison-house relieved it : 

That drop of rain had formed a gem 

To deck a monarch's diadem. 



Individual influence. — Let us suppose the existence of 
an island where, fire being extinguished, the people had to 
pass their days in cold and nights in darkness. A benevolent 
person comes with a torch and offers light to any one who 
wishes it, enjoining only that those persons so blessed should 
take their torches into at least two darkened dwellings. It 
would not be long s before all the island would have light, 
the progression being 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc. Now this is 
precisely the position the Christian holds in reference to 
this darkened world. He is to let his light so shine that 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 69 

others may not only see, but kindle at his flame. He 
is never to cease his labors until (not merely two but) all 
around him experience heaven's blessings. And so each 
one thus blessed would become the centre of innumerable 
rays. Were such a system carried out, the world would 
soon have no da*rk spots, but as it is, there are only a few 
bright ones. And why so ? There is an evil spirit, whose 
hatred against God's light is such, that he instigates his 
followers not merely to extinguish the light of God's truth in 
themselves, but to do the same to those around them ; so that 
unless these centres of widening evil be resisted, the Church 
shall become like Pergamos or Thyatira, where the stork 
builds on the ruins of God's house, and the Turkish mosque 
takes the place of " Christ's holy temple." We see then 
around us two principles advancing with arithmetical preci- 
sion, the one calculated to change earth to Heaven, the other 
to change earth to Hell. 

What then shall we do % Stand by unconcerned 1 Hide 
our light under a bushel and so be responsible for the dark- 
ness such conduct occasions'? say we have no influence'? No; 
let us be up and doing. The drop of rain will teach us a 
lesson. The spark of fire will rebuke our lethargy. The 
grain of wheat will shame us to exertion. Let us if we 
would keep the light that now shines on us, remember that 
the condition of possession is its distribution to others. God 
gives us our daily light as we give to those who need our 
assistance. Says Dr. Arnold, " two or three decided persons 
steadily and quietly acting as they think right, will be a 
leaven to the whole mass, and the bad shall be left in that 
state, they shall meet hereafter, — a minority of unmixed 
evil." 



70 LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



XLI. 

" No poor in our congregation." — This was a remark made 
some years ago to the writer. No poor ! when Christ says 
that they are His representatives, and what is done to them 
is done to Himself. No poor there ! Where then was the 
exercise for that " charity without which all our doings are 
nothing worth V The person making this thoughtless remark 
supposed it told well for the wealth and respectability of the 
people, but to myself it seemed like the announcement of a 
catastrophe ; and, so far from exhibiting a state of prosperity, 
it showed the deepest destitution. It was the Church of 
Laodicea, in the 19th century, a Church which thought itself 
rich, when, in fact, it was poor, blind and naked ; " no poor 
there" why, spiritual poverty had clustered there and in- 
fected every member ! Ah ! how mistaken are they who think 
that the strength of a Church is in its riches. Such a mis- 
take did the emperor Decius make, when he demanded of 
Bishop Ambrose his Church's treasures. The Bishop asked 
a day's delay, and at the time appointed introduced him to 
the Church, where was assembled the Church's armament ; 
the poor, blind, lame, and diseased beneficiaries. These were 
the Church's treasure, for the Church that so " considered the 
poor and needy will be delivered in the- time of trouble." 
" But, in a temporal point of view, is not a Church of rich 
persons best for the Church's support f We by no means 
assent to this. We believe that the stream made up of many 
small contributions is deeper and more beneficial than the 
cataract which leaps from crag to crag, and then dissipates in 
spray. We believe that if we want a reward from God in 
this world, we are not to call merely the rich, for they can 
recompense us again, but we are to call the poor, and their 
paymaster will Himself see that their debt is paid. We are 
of opinion, that the widow's mites were more effectual toward 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



71 



sustaining the temple than the larger gifts of plenty. But let 
us not forget that if we would reach to the dignity of the 
widow's mite, we must first descend to the widow's self-denial. 
A poor " will" is vastly more productive than a rich " way." 
And no poverty is so deep as his who, having abilities, starves 
the soul, by withholding it from deeds of benevolence. Such 
a one is in every sense the literal miser, who demands our 
compassion and our prayers. 



THE POOR OF CHRIST. 

FROM CHRISTIAN LYRICS. 

How highly honoured, Lord, are they 

Who wait upon Thy poor ; 
Who serve their Maker day by day, 

Within the cottage door ; 
Who aid the widow's portion scant, 

And feed and comfort those 
That image, in their grief and want, 

"The Man of many woes." 

For Scripture saith, the poor and sad 

Are types of God the Son ; 
That He who makes their bosoms glad, 

Makes glad the Holy One ; 
That when we tend the sick, and feed 

The hungry at our board, 
We minister to Jesus' need, 

And serve our blessed Lord. 

Then should not Christian's eye behold 

The low.with reverence meet, 
And lay their silver and their gold 

Right joyful at their feet ; 
And open wide, with ready hands, 

The hospitable door, 
When Jesus Christ before them stands 

In person of his Poor ? 



72 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



Yea, come, ye blessed of the Lord, 

Afflicted upon earth ! 
Receive the best I can afford, 

And sanctify my hearth : 
For Jesus' love, my cup partake — 

Your prayers are all I claim ; 
JEat of my bread, for Jesus' sake, 

And bless me, in His name. 



XLIL 

"I DO NOT FEEL AN INTEREST IN THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL," 

— says an Episcopalian, who accordingly sends his children 
to another day-school. A Churchman, and yet not be in- 
terested in a Church school, to the establishment and main- 
tenance of which his minister has devoted so much anxiety ! 
How is this ? Perhaps the other school is the cheapest, and 
certainly, if education for your children at the least cost be 
the object, the Public School is best ; or if you design merely 
to prepare your child for successful business, that is the place. 
There are, however, some singular people who have different 
views, and who do sustain their own Church schools. The 
Romanist system is well known ; but besides this, the 
German Reformed Church, at their last General Synod, re- 
commended such a school in every one of their congregations. 
The Methodists also have academies and colleges under their 
especial charge ; so that this singularity is by no means con- 
fined to Episcopalians. Yes ; there are some parents who 
act on the belief, that their children have souls to be saved, as 
well as bodies to be cared for ; who feel that God holds them 
responsible for " training their young in the way they should 
go;" who think, with Judge Erskine, of England, in his 
charge to the Jury, that " it is found by experience that mere 
education, unaccompanied with instilling sound religious prin- 
ciples, did not tend to lessen crime." Such parents, regard- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



73 



ing any training that does not contemplate eternity, as 
essentially defective, send their children to a Church school 
where a judgment day may be taught without offence ; where 
the Bible and the Catechism are learned without disturbance ; 
where prayer is made to Him "without whom nothing is 
strong, nothing is holy ;" and where the minister of Christ 
can enter without intrusion. "To seek first the kingdom of 
God and His righteousness," is not only a duty for yourself, 
but for your children also. Such a course will be found, even 
in a temporal point of view, the best ; for, things which at the 
beginning are cheap, are not always the cheapest in the end. 
And this is particularly true of a Christless education. 

A Church school may cost more than another, though such 
is by no means always the case. Supposing, however, that it 
be so in this instance, what are a few dollars compared with 
the manners which your child is forming for life ; the intima- 
cies which mould its character, and above all, the principles 
of conduct which determine individual, domestic and eternal 
felicity? If you desire to improve your child's health, you 
would send it to a place where the air is purest. If you 
would improve your child's morals, you will send it where an 
atmosphere of morality prevails; and no morality can exist 
independent of religion. No school-room is fit for a Chris- 
tian's child, where Christ's name is spoken only in a whisper. 
By sending your child to a Church school, you do not neces- 
sarily save its soul, but you do your part in placing it where 
it may learn reverence to God, justice to neighbors, and obe- 
dience to yourself. The instructions of the Sunday School, 
now so thwarted by the influence of day-schools, would then 
be deepened by the teachings of the whole week. And you 
might reasonably expect that through the combined instru- 
mentality of your minister, teacher, and yourself, your child 
would exhibit a dutiful conduct at home, and thus be a bless- 
ing to its parents and all its connections. 
7 



74 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



English parochial schools. — The Eev. Mr. Jackson, of 
Norfolk, Va., thus writes, from England : — 

" In every Parish visited, the Parochial schools appear to be 
the object of the liveliest interest and solicitude to the clergy. 
Connected with each church, I have generally found three 
schools, one for boys, one for girls, and one for infant children 
of both sexes, numbering all together from 100 to 200 
children, in some cases as high as 500 and even 1,000. The 
whole system of moral, religious and intellectual training is 
one which must excite admiration in every beholder. And 
happy must be the fruits which will appear in the generations 
following. 

" Besides these schools, it is no unusual thing to see one or 
more of 30, 40, or 50 children, established and sustained by 
the benevolence of some individual member of the Church, 
and under his personal supervision, — so that it does really 
seem that England's Church is bending all her energies upon 
the moral and intellectual improvement of the poor, and 
rapidly does the Church advance under all these noble efforts 
of her children, and the wretched and degraded, in many a 
hitherto neglected hamlet, may now be seen crowding to the 
House of God." 

XLHI. 

" I forgot the vestry meeting." — A sad forgetfulness, for 
the Vestry do not meet very often, and your absence may 
have prevented a quorum to transact business, and thus the 
Church affairs are neglected. A single adjournment, under 
such circumstances, sets a bad example to the Vestrymen who 
have taken some pains to be present, and who may not take 
the same trouble again. Moreover, it shows a want of in- 
terest in the Church, which has its effect on the other Vestry- 
men, and also on the congregation, who, seeing the Vestry 
negligent, take less interest in Church affairs than they other- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



75 



wise would. Some Churches may be so prosperous as to 
require very few meetings of the Vestry ; the people may be 
so willing for every good work, that its affairs can be managed 
by the Treasurer alone ; but most Churches require the atten- 
tion of every Vestryman to their financial affairs, and when 
this attention, to which they are solemnly pledged, is forgotten, 
the Church-building begins to decay, and the minister suffers 
from the non-payment of his salary. This last result is 
particularly hard: for, as the spiritual interests of the con- 
gregation engage all his time, the Church has relieved him 
from the care of his support by committing it to the Vestry, 
and all he asks is that he may receive such a salary as will 
enable him to be Christ's minister without embarrassment. 
What cruelty then, when he has done his part, for Vestrymen 
to neglect theirs. This is Pharaoh's demand of the usual tale 
of bricks without the requisite straw. It is this which dis- 
turbs him with cares that do not properly belong to him ; — 
which injures his usefulness ; subjects him to the degradation 
of debt ; exposes his family to wants which are not the less 
real for being concealed, and which often bring him to a pre- 
mature grave. He may not be so acceptable as formerly, 
but is there not a cause ? Your neglect may have depressed 
his spirits. Try what encouragement, or rather justice, will 
do. Support him by your attendance at the Vestry meeting. 
Do not absent yourself from Church for any slight cause, and 
thus you will cheer him to exertion ; for, having feelings as 
other men, as he is depressed by injustice, so is he animated 
by co-operation. 

It is true that Vestrymen cannot compel the congregation 
to do their duty, but they can bring their influence and 
example to bear, and thus do good. They can attend Church 
themselves ; they can induce others to come ; they can pro- 
cure subscriptions, or rent seats, and in many other things 
impracticable for their minister, they can promote the Church's 
welfare. An active harmonious Vestry are a blessing to any 



76 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



congregation, while an inactive, divided Vestry will directly 
throw the Church's temporal, and indirectly its spiritual 
affairs, into confusion. In most cases, that is the cause why 
the minister seeks some other field of labor, or enters upon 
some other occupation for his support. The Church affairs 
demand pressing attention. Your own spiritual health re- 
quires exertion in some good work. What an opportunity is 
then offered for a Vestryman to do good to others and to 
himself. Even though he receive no pecuniary reward for 
such labor, he will not be forgotten by Him who says, " Inas- 
much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye 
have done it unto Me." 

Necessary as an active Vestryman is, he is not more so than 
another important officer, — A Prompt Treasurer. " One of 
the most useful men in any Church or Society, as many know 
by experience, is a prompt gentlemanly Treasurer. On the 
appointed days, and perhaps on the same hour in those days, 
he makes his appearance at the Pastor's house, and the 
Pastor sees in him, as it were, a whole congregation earnest 
to fulfil their obligations to their minister. The bonds of 
love, through a delicate sense of obligation and gratitude, in- 
sensibly grow stronger in the Pastor's heart. He respects 
his people more. He is admonished and quickened in his 
duties. But when the Treasurer comes far behind his time 
and then pays only a small part of the arrears, and dole- 
fully tells the minister that the Society is very poor, and 
that they find it exceedingly difficult to pay his salary, then 
the minister and his wife have long and sad conferences about 
their straitened circumstances. They meditate an encroach- 
ment upon the little property a relative has left her, the 
knowledge of which is the reason felt or assigned by some 
parishioners for not paying their dues. From the experience 
which brethren in the ministry have related, it may be con- 
fidently asserted, that if there is any cruelty and any suffer- 
ing, peculiarly . exquisite and keen, it may be found in the 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 77 

n treatment of a sensitive pastor, by an unfaithful people, and 
in his secret sorrows on account of it. 

" All men love to be paid promptly. It is a universal truth 
that ' short reckonings make long friends.' You never pay 
money to a tradesman or laborer promptly and willingly 
without putting him in a good humor. How freely he speaks 
of the weather, inquires as to the health of your family, in- 
dulges his innocent wit, smiles, thanks you, and makes you 
feel you are one of his benefactors or friends."* 

XLIY. 

" Only prayers." — And accordingly some never go to 
Church except when there is a sermon, and sometimes not 
then, because it is too long. " Only prayers!" But does 
not Christ say that His house " is the house of prayer V — a 
place where prayer not only is made, but answered % And 
have we not the example of Apostles for going up to the 
Temple to pray 1 What are those prayers that they are so 
neglected % They are not in a foreign language ; nor does the 
minister omit any thing essential : on the contrary, they 
comprise every thing necessary to public devotion, for the 
people have met together " to render thanks for the great 
benefits received at God's hand, to set forth His most worthy 
praise, to hear His most Holy Word, and to ask those things 
which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the 
soul." Now one would think that if all this were only done 
sincerely, a great deal would be accomplished. Why even 
Gurney, the Quaker, said, he " derived the greatest benefit 
from an attendance on the week meetings," (silent.) And 
Archbishop Leighton says, in his charge to the Clergy, 1662, 
" Whatsoever ministers do, they should beware of returning 
to their long expositions, besides the sermon, at one and the 



7* 



* Banner of the Cross, 1847. 



78 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



same meeting ; which, beside the tediousness and other incon- 
venience, is apt to foment in people's minds the foolish pre- 
judice and proud disdain they have taken against the Scriptures 
read without a superadded discourse ; in which conceit, for 
all their zeal against Popery, they seem to be too much of 
the Romish opinion, as accounting the Holy Scriptures in 
themselves as so obscure that it is some way dangerous, or at 
least altogether unprofitable, to intrust the common people 
either with reading or hearing any part of them at any time, 
unless they be backed with continual expositions." Truly, if 
those who object to " only prayers," would only make the 
experiment of entering more fully into their spirit, every ob- 
jection would be silenced by their beauty. 

Dr. Johnson said the reason why he attended week-day 
prayers was, that so few being present, his presence was more 
serviceable than on other occasions of worship ; but, for this 
reason of the doctor's, most persons stay away. 



XLY. 

"I DO NOT LIKE TO BEGIN FAMILY PRAYER." Bllt yOU should 

endeavor to overcome any dislike which prevents you from 
undertaking so beneficial a duty ; and, having begun, you will 
find a greater facility, and more domestic happiness in its 
performance. The Church has provided a beautiful form of 
morning and evening family prayer, so that it is not necessary 
to have any peculiar " gift" in this respect, which many ap- 
parently are waiting for. The practice of family prayer has 
now become a kind of common law in the Church, indepen- 
dent of positive requirement. Men frequently have it not in 
their power to attend the Church's week-day service ; but 
they can, by a little exertion, always have prayer in the 
family, which is attended with so much benefit to parents, 
children, servants, and "the stranger that is within thy gates," 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



79 



that some one says, " A house without such prayer is roofless." 
A short chapter of Scripture, and, if practicable, the singing 
of a psalm or hymn, would add greatly to the blessed in- 
fluence on the circle within which your happiness is enclosed. 
A recent traveller says, that in nearly every respectable 
English family such prayer is observed: and why is it not so 
with us ? 

There is not on earth a scene more interesting than a family 
thus bending before the God of heaven; — a collection of 
dependent beings, with tender feelings, with lively sympathies, 
with common hopes, fears, joys, blending their bliss and their 
woes together, and presenting them all to the King of kings, 
and the Great Father of all the families of mankind. There is 
not on earth a man that is more to be venerated, or that will 
be more venerated, than the father who thus ministers at the 
family altar. No other man, like that father, so reaches all 
the sources of human action, or so gently controls the powers, 
yielding in their first years, and following the direction of his 
moulding hand, that are soon to control all that is tender and 
sacred in the interest of the church and state. No Solon or 
Lycurgus is laying the foundation of codes of laws so deep, 
or taking so fast a hold on all that is to affect the present or 
future destiny of man. We love, therefore, to look at such 
venerable locks, and to contemplate these ministers of God 
who stand between the rising generation, — feeble, helpless, 
and exposed to a thousand perils, — and the Eternal Parent of 
all. They stand between the past and the coming age, — rem- 
nants of the one, and lights to the other ; binding the past 
with that which is to come ; living lights of experience to 
guide the footsteps of the ignorant and erring ; to illuminate 
the coming generation • — to obtain for it blessings by counsel 
and prayer, and then to die. And if the earth contains, amid 
its desolation, one spot of green on which the eye of God re- 
poses with peculiar pleasure, it is the collected group, with the 
eye of the father raised to heaven, and the voice of faith and 



so 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



prayer commending the little worshippers to the protecting 
care of Him who never slumbers nor sleeps. 

The inimitable language of Burns, on this subject, is not 
fiction. In hundreds of families you might witness all that is 
pure and sublime in the scene contemplated by the Scottish 
bard : 

They chant their artless notes in simple guise ; 

They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim ; 
Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise, 

Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name : 
Or noble Elgin beets the heavenward flame, 

The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays : 
Compared with these, Italian trills are tame; 

The tickled ears no heart-felt rapture raise ; 
Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise. 

The priest-like father reads the sacred page, 

How Abram was the friend of God on high ; 
Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage 

"With Amalek's ungracious progeny ; 
Or how the royal bard did groaning lie 

Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire ; 
Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry ; 

Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire ; 
Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. 

Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme, 

How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed ; 
How He, who bore in heaven the second name, 

Had not on earth whereon to lay his head ; 
How his first followers and servants sped ; 

The precepts sage they wrote to many a land ; 
How he who lone in Patmos banished, 

Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand ; 
And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by heaven's 
command. 

Then kneeling down, to heaven's Eternal King, 
The saint, the father, and the husband prays ; 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



SI 



Hope "springs exulting on triumphant wing," 
That thus the}' all shall meet in future da}-s ; 

There ever bask in uncreated rays, 
Iso more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear ; 

Together hymning their Creator's praise, 
In such society, yet still more dear; 

While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. 



XLYI. 

" I must go to the society." — And for that purpose must 
leave the Church or some Church engagement to go to the 
Society. Why, it has always been thought among Christians 
that Christ's Church was the Society, and consequently, that 
all other associations were as inferior to the Church as the 
perishing body is to the undying soul. But you must and 
you will go ; and to that Society you give that time, thought, 
means, influence, which legitimately belong to the Church, 
" the bride of Christ." And hence, on week days, the Church 
meeting numbers some six men, while the Society numbers 
its hundreds in procession, and brings at one meeting such 
crowds as enter into no Church. If any member of the 
Church should read this, he is requested to consider the result 
if the Church received as much attention as her more success- 
ful human rivals. Would not the Church flourish as that 
rival ; and would not your own piety greatly increase 1 The 
further inquiry is respectfully made, " whether it be right, in 
God's sight, to allow any such institution to take that place 
in your heart which belongs to Christ and His Church ?" It 
is on this account that God's ministers must complain with 
Jeremiah, " The ways of Zion mourn, because none come to 
her solemn feasts." * 

♦The above remarks -were written before the formation of Church Brotherhoods, 
and were not intended to refer to them. 



82 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



XLYH. 

" TOO MANY BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS ALREADY." Bllt what 

kind of books'? Historical and biographical, travels and 
school books ; novels in abundance. But how many religious 
books have you ? Do you expend ten dollars a year in this 
way ? Perhaps among all your purchases not one of a re- 
ligious character has lately been procured. A good book is 
a good friend, and exercises a powerful influence on the char- 
acter, preserving, as in a phial, the best thoughts of the best 
men. You yourself may be so engaged in business as not 
to have much" leisure, but your family will read ; and if you 
do not furnish them with books of a good character, they will 
read such as indispose them for the duties of life, or dispose 
them for the follies and vices which so abound. A good book 
is then not only an antidote for idleness, but it supplies the 
place of reading positively injurious. It introduces the 
reader to the best thoughts of the best men, and furnishes 
a delightful occupation in many hours which otherwise might 
be thrown away ; for, according to Fenelon, " Disquiet which 
preys on other men is unknown to those fond of reading." 

You have old religious books ; but you must have new also, 
to prevent the others from moulding in the memory. You 
must have such as meet the wants of the age, and are adapted 
to the changes of society. Hence new books are generally 
preferred, and unless religious truth be presented to the young 
in an attractive garb, for the most part it will not be read. 
You are careful in introducing a stranger to your family : be 
equally so as to the books you introduce, that they may be 
such as will leave a blessing and not a curse behind. Nor 
can the usual plea of expense be alleged as an excuse, for such 
is the facility for printing, that books can now be bought at 
one half of their former cost. A whole library, containing 
one hundred volumes, can be obtained for ten dollars ; and it 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



88 



is difficult to see how such a sum could accomplish more good. 
If you, as a Christian parent, wish your children to be intel- 
ligent Christians, renew your supply of proper books, and you 
shall find the investment cheap. A thought contained therein 
may, in its influence on your family, save many hours of woe. 
An old writer says, that "Any person who hoards up his 
money, instead of laying it out in such a charity, should be 
condemned to the mines." 

The same remarks apply to a religious paper, only that 
the expense is still less; being three, two, and even one 
dollar a year for a paper which will visit you weekly, and 
bring to your house some hundred different articles, each 
containing a good thought. You will see how your Heavenly 
Father governs the world, and particularly His Church : what 
the missionary is doing, — what other Christian bodies are en- 
gaged in. You will meet with gems of thought in prose and 
poetry ; extracts from the best writings ; encouragements to 
good and warnings against evil, with examples of both. And 
thus you will sustain an agency which, at present, is indispen- 
sable to our Church's due success. The dearest paper is 
cheap indeed when we consider the influence of fifty-two such 
in a year, read as they are by all the family. Episcopalians, 
though as a body inferior to none in intelligence, are greatly 
deficient in this respect, for while nearly every Methodist 
takes his Church paper, whole congregations of ours take 
scarcely one. If you have not done so before, subscribe to 
one now. (Of course you will punctually pay for it, other- 
wise it would not be to you a religious paper.) You shall 
find it a corrector not only of other papers filled with idle 
tales, but also a disinfectant of those crimes and advertising 
impurities which are in papers generally respectable, the 
reading of which produces a contagious familiarity with vice. 
Your family will read some papers: which kind do you 
choose 1 ? Alexander Knox, in writing to Bishop Jebb, says, 
" whatever you save do not save in Reviews. The receiving 



84 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



of these has something exhilarating. They "bring in news to 
me from the mental and moral world. I see in them what is 
going on, and from three different classes of monthlies some 
satisfactory inference may be made of the stations which 
minds are keeping or the changes they are undergoing." 
Said Daniel Webster, " If religious books are not widely cir- 
culated among the masses in this country, and the people do 
not become religious, I do not know what is to become of us 
as a nation." 

XLVIII. 

" I can forgive but not forget." — But have you really 
tried to forget, or do you still dwell on the subject, talk of it, 
establish a non-intercourse, and withdraw even the smile of 
recognition from your former friend % If so, you do Hot for- 
get because you will not. Forgetfulness is not so difficult as 
you imagine ; witness the grief at the death of a relative, or 
the facility with which the most solemn promises to God are 
forgotten. If you earnestly tried ; nay, if you would only 
let the subject alone, perhaps in a year you would not only 
have forgotten the injury, but the quarrel that followed it. 

But what, after all, is this great injury which is beyond 
your ability to forget it ? Perhaps you were yourself a little 
in the wrong, or perhaps the tale-bearer did not tell exactly 
what was said or done at which you took such exception, or 
perhaps you are rather disposed to irritability, like a match 
which requires only the least rubbing for a flare-up. But no : 
" You have been perfectly innocent in the transaction, and 
the other party altogether in the wrong ;" then yours should 
be the anger of a good man, which resembles the flinty spark, 
hard to excite and immediately extinguished. As a Christian, 
you should be glad to exercise that forgiving " charity with- 
out which all our doings are nothing worth," and the Lord's 
Prayer a curse. You have the opportunity of forgiving your 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 85 

debtor the hundred pence, particularly as you expect to be 
forgiven your debt to God of ten thousand talents. You can 
now pray heartily " for your enemies, persecutors, and slan- 
derers, that God would change their hearts." 

You do not try to forget, because you do not try to for- 
give ; and thus you continue in a state displeasing to God, 
disgusting to yourself, grievous to your friends, injurious to 
piety, and a hindrance to every good enterprise ; for nothing 
impedes the Church's progress more than dissension among 
its ministers. It is not required that others be in charity 
with you, but that you be in charity with them. Try again 
to forget it, and for this purpose engage in some good work, 
and thus your thoughts will not have leisure to prey on your 
troubles ; press forward, and you will soon forget the painful 
past. Be sufficiently a Christian to soar above such things, 
leaving them to those who are animated by no better mo- 
tives, who have no such objects of importance. 

It is an interesting inquiry what the effect upon the Church 
would be, if the attention given to dissensions in a congrega- 
tion were expended in advancing its interests : what energy, 
life, and success, instead of the present insensibility to the 
Church's most pressing demands ! 

" A man strikes me with a sword, and inflicts a wound. 
Suppose instead of binding up the wound, I am showing it to 
everybody ; and after it has been bound up, I am taking off 
the bandage continually and examining the depth of the 
wound and causing it to fester, till my limb becomes greatly 
inflamed, and my general health is materially affected ; is 
there a person in the world that would not call me a fool % 
Now such a fool is he, who, by dwelling upon little injuries 
or insults, or provocations, causes them to agitate and inflame 
his mind. How much better were it to put a bandage over 
the wound, and never look at it again." 



8 



86 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



" When on the fragrant sandal tree 

The woodman's axe descends, 
And she who bloomed so beauteously 

Beneath the keen stroke bends — 
E'en on the edge that brought her death, 
Dying she breathes her sweetest breath — 
As if to token in her fall 
Peace to her foes and love to all. 
How hardly man this lesson learns, 
To smile and bless the hand that spurns : 
To see the blow and feel the pain, 
But render only love again. 
This spirit ne'er was given on earth — 
One had it : He of heavenly birth. 
Reviled, rejected, and betrayed, 
No curse He breathed, no plaint He made ; 
But when in death's deep pang He sighed, 
Prayed for His murderers and died." 



XLIX. 

" He was no one's enemy but his own." — He must then 
have had a singular dislike to himself, to treat all others so 
much better than himself : but is it true that he injured only 
himself? Did his conduct give his family no trouble'? Was 
not his example pernicious to the welfare of society ? Alas ! 
he wasted his own life in self-indulgence, at the expense of the 
feelings, the reputation, and sometimes the very comforts, of 
those depending on him : and yet, " he was no one's enemy 
but his own !" But was he honest towards his Maker, Re- 
deemer, Sanctifier 1 Did he meet His claims ? Oh no ! he 
could lavish his affections on earthly benefactors, and yet re- 
fuse gratitude to Him who gave him all he ever had. He 
could be honest towards his neighbor, and why did. he not 
extend that honesty towards one nearer than a neighbor 1 ? 
Why was he not honest towards himself, instead of deceiving 



LEGION. OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 87 

his heart with wretched excuses ? Alas ! it was truly asked 
by a little girl, on reading the epitaphs in a burial-ground, 
" Father, where are the sinners buried ?" And it has been as 
truly suggested by some one, " That if many persons could 
rise to life again, (the darkness of delusion being now scat- 
tered,) they would imagine, from the wrong description of 
character, that they had been laid in the wrong grave :" for 
only of the righteous can it be said, " He has exchanged the 
sorrows of earth for the felicities of heaven." 

L. 

" Send for the Minister." — A very proper message, for 
a minister cannot possibly know who are sick in his congre- 
gation without being told of it, as he has not the attribute either 
of omnipresence or omniscience, which belong to the Al- 
mighty alone. And hence the unreasonableness of those who 
will not send, and then are angry that the minister does not 
come. But in this case he ivas sent for, but not, alas ! until 
his visit was perfectly useless ; when the physician had given 
up his patient, and a few hours closed a life of impenitence. 
How fatal the mistake, to think that the minister can then do 
any good ! But most frequently is he then sent for, and what 
is the result 1 He explains the necessity of repentance, prays, 
and takes his leave. The sick man expresses resignation to 
that death which he cannot avoid ; breathes a prayer, perhaps 
the first for years, hopes God will forgive him, and then begs 
his friends to meet him in heaven, — and they think that all is 
well. But why such hopes are entertained is inexplicable, 
except on the ground of that self-delusion which is so general. 
The man has, through life, made his bosom an asylum for 
legions of self-deceptions, and they do not forsake him in his 
dying hour. Health was the season for repentance, but to 
converse with the minister then was never thought of ; indeed 
the man scarcely ever heard the minister in public. Even 



88 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



when sickness commenced, religion was not thought of, but as 
life must be surrendered in a short time, the messenger comes, 
breathless, for the man of God. 

What strange ideas of repentance such a person must 
have, when this is supposed to be a genuine instance of it ! 
and how dangerous such a supposition to the surviving im- 
penitent ! 

LI. 

" They are so distant." — The members of the Church un- 
happily are too much so in their conduct towards each other. 
They say they believe " in the communion of Saints," without 
trying to realize sufficiently what they say. Sometimes, 
however, the fault is with the complainers, who mistakingly 
expect that, immediately after their membership, a general call 
shall be made to see them. Intimacy, even in the Church, 
must be gradual, resulting from knowledge of the stranger's 
character, and for that, some time must necessarily be 
allowed, otherwise, there might be introduced one who would 
change the harmony that exists into interminable dissensions. 
A quiet person will have no difficulty in making acquaint- 
ances. The Church too much needs such, to let them be 
neglected. But such a person is sometimes as distant from 
the other Church members as they are from her, and they 
complain of her distance as much as she does of theirs. She 
must not expect to receive all the visiting without returns. 
Let her be only accessible, ready to forbear, unruffled by 
every cross event, and the distance of which she complains 
will be found much less than she supposed : imaginary cold- 
ness will yield to cordial welcome. For the encouragement 
of sociability among Church members, it should be known, 
that such friendships springing from a common love to Christ, 
are superior in permanency to any other, and hence, all 
proper associations in the Church should be promoted, not 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



89 



only for some direct object, for but that which is more im- 
portant, the bringing of Church members together. The dis- 
tance we attribute to others, is often that beam in our own 
eye which prevents our seeing clearly the mote in our 
brother's eye. 

LII. 

" You have no provision FOR revivals." — This depends 
on what is meant by Revivals. We do not provide for that 
" dead machinery of new measures professedly for ' the getting 
up of Revivals in religion' which, in practice, have so profanely 
dispensed with the influences of the Holy Spirit in the con- 
viction and conversion of sinners ; which, under the name of 
promoting a more spiritual and simple religion have, in the 
places where they are most used, introduced the hardest and 
worst, because the most spiritually pretending of all formality ; 
which, in a word, have confessedly overspread many large 
portions of our country with spiritual delusion and paralysis." 
This testimony of Bishop Mcllvaine, seems to be fully corro- 
borated by the " New York Christian Advocate and Journal" 
a leading Methodist paper, which thus speaks : — " It cannot be 
denied that the S3^stem of recruiting our Church by Revivals, 
has been seriously abused, and that the faith of our preachers 
and people, in the benefits of such religious excitements, has 
been very much shaken. The plan of forcing a periodical 
excitement by the aid of professed agitators or Revivalists, has 
been fraught with consequences disastrous to the Church. 
Machine-made converts, were found to have a very ephemeral 
life, and the successful labors of the reviver to fill the classes 
of probationers, were generally followed by the more laborious 
and ungrateful efforts of regular preachers, to rid them of 
careless and irreligious members." In such Revivals, our 
Church does not confide, but we do provide for Revivals as 
thus denned in the Episcopal Recorder of August 10, 1844. 
8* 



90 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



" A Revival of religion, we understand to be those deepened 
spiritual impressions which are produced by bringing the 
great truths of the Gospel to bear strongly on the hearts and 
consciences of men. And the only legitimate means for the 
production of such impressions are those that resolve them- 
selves into the application of truth. But has our prayer 
book made no such arrangements as this 1 Do not our morn- 
ing and evening services present all the most precious and 
saving doctrines of religion in a devotional, as the articles in a 
didactic form. And is this nothing ? Must religious truth 
lose its effect when appearing in the prayer book % If ever 
there was on earth a complete and beautiful system of Gospel 
instruction, presenting in their connection the nativity, the 
sufferings, the death, the resurrection and ascension of our 
Lord : the Atonement and Trinity, etc., it will be found in 
the arrangement of the Calendar of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. As to ' protracted meetings? if there be any thing in 
these promotive of Revivals, we insist upon it that we are in 
this respect at least considerably in advance of our objecting 
brethren. Their Church permits them, while by ours they are 
positively enjoined. They have their annual four days' meet- 
ing, and we have ours of forty days. They make provision 
for prayers and preaching, while we add to these fasting also. 
A means which does not appear to be in very high repute 
with some of the zealous champions of Revivals, and equally 
zealous impugners of the Liturgy." 



LIII. 

"What have I to do with the City Mission '?"— What 
have you to do with our city? You are surrounded by 
thousands of "neighbors" who are living as heathen in a 
Christian land. You are called upon by your Redeemer to 
give as freely as you have received, and to show your esti- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 91 

mate for your own undying soul by caring for the souls of 
others. Around you are thousands of children who, in a few 
years will, if left to themselves, be disturbers of the commu- 
nity, and be destined for the alms-house or jail, but who, if 
now cared for, may become blessings to society. There are 
already indications of riot and disturbance around you, which 
tend to render property and life insecure, and which are cal- 
culated to tarnish the reputation of your city. Your church 
has heretofore done almost nothing, having been far behind 
others which have not been blest with so much wealth and 
influence. Do you ask, then, what you " have to do with 
City Missions'?" You a citizen, Christian, churchman, man 
of property ! Why, you have the same to do, as if you stood 
on a river's brink and saw a neighbor drowning, or as if you 
had a specific for a contagious disease under which many 
around were suffering. Rev. Mr. Syle said, that "he had 
stood by and seen a Chinese idolater striking his head nine 
times on the ground before a block of wood, but this sight 
did not affect him so much as the wickedness of Christian 
heathen, — persons living within sound of a church-going bell, 
with all the ignorance of an idolater, and all the responsibility 
of the Christian." How does such a sight affect you ? — You, 
who by your baptism have been ordained to do to others as 
you would they should do to you 1 

" What would you have me to do 1" — We reply, that 
if you have any interest in this cause, show it by acting. 
You are not called, perhaps, to preach, and to administer the 
sacraments, but in your sphere you are still a missionary, 
sent by God to bless man, as He sends all His blessings not 
directly, but through agents appointed for that purpose. 

You may be able to visit the missionary stations, and there 
encourage weak hands by teaching the Sunday class, and 
staying to make the little congregation one larger. You may 
contribute your influence and counsel, to sustain the worn 



92 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



missionary in a work which demands the greatest wisdom, 
patience, and piety. You can, by your means, contribute to 
meet the wants of the city mission generally, and of some 
station in particular. And thus you may do yourself a 
greater benefit than if you adhered exclusively to your 
present arrangements. And as the scattering of the dis- 
ciples, on account of St. Stephen's death, caused the Gospel 
to be preached in other places besides Jerusalem, so let prin- 
ciple induce you to visit those quarters where " the harvest is 
plenteous and the laborers are few." 

City Missions become Foreign. — The various arguments 
in behalf of city missions may strike different minds with 
various degrees of force. There is one view, however, calcu- 
lated to influence the most careless, viz. : that cities are not 
only the source of much crime in themselves, but our Amer- 
ican cities are receiving a constantly increasing foreign popu- 
lation, much of which is infidel, much vicious, and a very 
small part religiously disposed. And, sad to say, owing to the 
breaking up of pious associations, the foreign religious element 
becomes weakened, and at last assimilated to the irreligion 
around. We have known emigrants who never missed at- 
tendance on their parish church, who brought with them the 
Bible or Prayer Book from their pastor, but who now never 
enter the house of God. With such an increasing foreign 
population what are we to do 1 We impose a quarantine on 
the infectious vessel^ and shall we see a moral miasma in our 
midst and do nothing'? Verily we shall have our reward! 
We boast much of the permanency of our free institutions, 
but let us not forget the assertion of General Cass, " that they 
cannot continue unless based on religion." And let us not 
forget that our government must reflect not only the will but 
the character of the people; and if that character become 
demoralized our freedom departs. " Righteousness exalteth 
a nation," and therefore it is the true patriot's duty to dis- 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



93 



seminate righteousness among the crowds coming to our 
shores. If it be the obligation of every Christian to go him- 
self directly, or through others, " into all the world," how in- 
creased is the obligation when " all the world" seems to be 
coming to our Atlantic and Pacific coasts'? 



THE LOST FOUND. 

Lo! a servant of the Lord, 

"Whilst wandering to and fro, 
Feeding — clothing — teaching — blessing 

The helpless here below, 
In a breadless, bedless hovel, 

jSTot on a barren wild, 
But in a wealthy city, found 

A little starving child. 

" Go, bring thy parents hither, boy," 

The good man cried — anon 
The child turn'd up a face, to see 

"Would melt a heart of stone : 
" Alas ! I have no parents, sir,' 

The little trembler cried ; 
" For my poor mother broke her heart 

The day my father died." 

Then said this servant of the Lord, 

" Come from the cruel cold, 
Poor little, shivering, shorn lamb, - 

Into our Christian fold. 
We'll feed thee — clothe thee — teach thee 

To read, to work, to pray ; 
And we will make thee sure, poor boy, 

Of three good meals a day." 

Oh ! had you seen the flush of joy 
That brightened o'er the cheek 

Of that poor starving orphan boy, 
"When, with a painful shriek, 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



He shouted, "Tell me, do I dream — 

Or did you really say, 
Kind sir, that you would make me sure 

Of three good meals a-day ? 

" I care not how the winds may blow, 

Or how the rains may beat ; 
I care not though the cruel frost 

Should bite my naked feet ; 
Again upon the hard cold earth 

My weary head I'll lay, 
Unmurmuring, if you make me sure 

Of three good meals a-day." 

Think, think of this, ye ladies fine — 

Of this, brave gentlemen ; 
I do not wish the gall of blame 

To stain my humble pen ; 
But, oh ! think of the poor, and know, 

The treasures of the skies 
Are Widows' mites, and Pity's tears, 

And Mercy' gentle sighs. 

When o'er the face of nature sweeps 

The wintry winds so wild, 
When ye are warmly clad, 0 think 

Upon the outcast child ! 
When tables groan, then think upon 

The heart that breaks for bread ; 
And when the blazing faggots burn, 

Think of the houseless head. 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



95 



LIV. 

"Our own church is in debt." — This excuse is fre- 
quently used, when any application is made for assistance ; 
and it is supposed to be quite satisfactory. Indeed the min- 
ister himself often fears to propose some benevolent object, 
lest his appeal meet with this chilling plea. A church-debt 
palsies exertion, frustrates the attempt to do good, and is so 
dishonoring to God and injurious to man, that immediate 
steps should be taken for its payment; for God's full bless- 
ing cannot be expected, until this incubus is removed from 
the congregation. And is it not a shame that God's Holy 
Temple should be liable to the claim of the creditor, when 
many of the surrounding dwellings are not only free from 
debt, but furnished with the most costly conveniences 1 God 
denounces " Wo unto him that buildeth his house by un- 
righteousness, and his chambers by wrong ; that useth his 
neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his 
work ; that saith, I will *build me a wide house and large 
chambers, and cutteth him out windows ; and it is ceiled with 
cedar, and painted with vermilion." 

But is it possible to remove a debt so large ? Yes, it may 
be done by perseverance and united effort. Let the total 
amount be distributed in two, three, or four years ; then sub- 
divide these annual payments by the number of months in 
the year ; let all the congregation subscribe monthly ; appoint 
faithful persons to collect these subscriptions ; and place them 
on the altar on some appointed Sundays, and the result is 
reached. What was formidable in the total, is manageable 
in detail; the church is free. The house belongs to God. 
The congregation have been strengthened by the effort. The 
minister is relieved from, a load of anxiety; and benevo- 
lence, hitherto choked, now springs up with a plenteous 
harvest. 



96 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



This plan of a direct gift to God has been successfully 
tried, while many other plans, more promising, fail in that 
regard to His favor, "without whom nothing is strong, 
nothing is holy." Let then all who love the church, old and 
young, rich and poor, give from their self-denial. Let it be 
done at once ; for when delayed the difficulty increases, while 
the ability of the congregation lessens through chronic in- 
disposition. Let it be done vigorously ; grasp the nettle 
firmly, and you do not feel the pain which follows the timid 
touch. 

" Great works," says a learned writer, " are done not by 
strength but by perseverance :" this it is that levels moun- 
tains and accomplishes the circuit of the globe ; and it is this 
which would pay the debt of all our churches. And what 
a blessing, if the announcement were made, that all our 
churches belonged to God, owing no man anything but love 
for his salvation ! Captive Zion would take her harp from 
the willows, and sing unto the Lord a new song ; " and God, 
even our own God, would give us His blessing." 

A king was once distressed by the thought that the Ark of 
God dwelt in curtains, while himself dwelt in a house of 
cedar. He would not give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to 
his eyelids, until he found out a place for the temple of the 
Lord ; and he turned from the cares of state, to pray that the 
walls of Jerusalem might be built. Supposing, however, that 
the temple had been built, but mortgaged to the Tyrians, 
would that king's prayers and exertions have been less fer- 
vent, or would his sleep have been calm, until the last shekel 
of that mortgage had been paid? No: but on its being 
paid, he would have rejoiced as on the day when the ark was 
brought to Jerusalem. This privilege of a king belongs also 
to the poorest widow of the congregation. It is an honor 
which should not be monopolized by a few, but shared by 
all ; for, all may now sing. 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



97 



Arise, 0 Lord! and now possess 

Thy constant place of rest : 
Be that not only with Thy ark, 

But with Thy presence, blest! 

A presence, more glorious than that which hallowed the first 
temple of Solomon or the second of Zerubbabel. 

Then, brethren, for the sake of Christ and His Church, give 
liberally, and remove the burden of these Church debts. 
There are many of you who could yearly give hundreds to 
this noble object. It would be a blessing to yourselves and 
to your families. Why hoard money to inflame pride and 
avarice, or to encircle with gilded temptations those children 
you are to train for heaven? Why take away the chief 
stimulus to their industry and self-reliance 1 ? Why heap up 
fortunes to be sunk at death % Was our Saviour mistaken 
when He uttered the solemn warnings found in St. Matthew, 
xHL 22 • St. Mark, x. 23 ; and St. Luke, vi. 24 % Alas ! some 
seem to believe all God's word except these important truths ; 
and when the light of eternity breaks upon them, will they 
not wish to return and make their wills over again ? Oh, 
that some rays of that light would now show us that we are 
but stewards, and not the proprietors of anything but our 
sins ! 



LY. 

" I have no voice." — Bishop Ravenscroft was on one oc- 
casion saying the Creed in church ; but, finding that no one 
repeated it after him, he paused and expressed the hope that 
he was not the only one present who believed in God, the 
Father Almighty. A minister officiating now in some con- 
gregations might have the same reason to hope that all were 
not dumb excepting himself and the choir. The Church calls 
9 



98 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



on all to " come and sing unto the Lord ;" and the invitation 
is accepted by a quartette and the organ. 

"But I have no voice for singing." And have you no 
voice for responding ? An ancient Father said, that the 
united Amen came up from the congregation as the voice of 
thunder ; but now it sometimes requires a practised ear to 
detect any response whatever. Is it not strange, that those 
who after service speak so audibly to each other, who so 
freely express thanks to a fellow-man for the slightest favor, 
are dumb in the presence of their Father and their Friend 1 — 
have a voice for all others but for Him who for them was 
cradled in a manger and crucified on Calvary ? Shall angels 
praise God for mail's Saviour, and man himself be insensible? 
Let all those who have received no favor from God keep 
silence, but let those whom He daily crowns with mercy, to 
whom He gives the power of speech, use that speech in 
" setting forth His most worthy praise, and in asking those 
things requisite and necessary as well for the body as the 
soul." 

The Service of the Protestant Episcopal Church is con- 
fessedly excellent ; but its excellence consists in its proper 
performance by minister and people. If, however, the con- 
gregation are silent when they should respond, the old re- 
proach is revived that the Liturgy of the Church is her 
lethargy. The beautiful service seems cold and tedious; 
and the stranger departs with unfavorable impressions. The 
Church has been wounded in the house of her friends ; they 
have praised the service, and yet have neglected its per- 
formance. They have awarded flattery instead of that simple 
justice which she asks. Were they only just in doing their 
part, the service would indeed have the same words, but a 
far different expression ; beauties would then develop which 
now are hid. If all found room for Jesus in their praise, the 
humblest church would become the palace of a king; the 
Liturgy would be doubly dear to ourselves ; and strangers 



LEGION, OR FEIGNED EXCUSES. 



99 



would be attracted, not by the report of others, but by what 
they themselves saw and heard. 

There are many who can and yet do not sing, fearing to 
presume on the privileges of the choir ; a fear, not warranted 
by the Rubric or by the Liturgy, nay condemned by the very 
title, — " The book of common prayer," — common, both in 
prayer and praise. Had the Church given no directions on 
this subject, true devotional taste would greatly prefer the 
plainest tune sung with one accord, to the most elaborate 
performance of the few. One well versed in the human 
heart, and qualified to express an opinion, declared, " that the 
devotion in which every one took a share seemed so superior 
to that which was recited by musicians, as a lesson that they 
had learned by rote, that it gave the Scottish worship all the 
advantage of reality over acting." May the time soon come 
when the same testimony shall be borne to the worship of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, whose service is expressly 
designed for all coming into the presence of their Lord and 
Maker. 

In this design, 
Let youths with maids, 
And hoary heads 

"With children, join! 



100 



REASONS WHY I ATTEND CHURCH 



$n Sntolfa for u Hiring Smttag; 

OB, 

THIRTY-POUR GOOD REASONS WHY I ATTEND CHURCH ON SUNDAYS, 
RAINY, SNOWY, MISTY, HOT. 



1. Because God has blest the Sabbath Day, and hallowed 
it, — making no exception for rainy Sundays. 

2. Because I expect my Minister to be there, and should 
be surprised if he were to stay at home for the weather. 

3. Because, although he has been faithfully present through 
many storms, I see that his health is as good as mine, who 
have so frequently been absent. 

4. Because my absence, for slight reasons, will lead him to 
think that there is some personal objection to him, when, 
perhaps, he is devoting all his energy to the salvation of his 
charge. 

5. Because my non-attendance is calculated to paralyze 
his exertions, and lead him to suppose that his visits and ser- 
mons are useless. 

6. Because, if his hands fall through weakness, I shall have 
great reason to blame myself, unless I sustain him by my 
prayers and presence, as I should do. 

7. Because, in preaching the doctrines of Scripture, and 
enforcing the discipline of the Church, (to both of which he is 
solemnly pledged,) he has difficulties enough to encounter 
without my increasing their number. 

8. Because God has blessed me with the means of obtain- 
ing such precautions against the weather, that I am in no real 
danger. 



IN ALL WEATHER. 



101 



9. Because my presence is more needed on Sundays when 
there are few, than on those days when the church is 
crowded. 

10. Because, by staying away, I may lose the sermon that 
would have done me great good ; and shall lose the prayers 
which invariably bring God's blessing on the true heart. 

11. Because, whatever station I hold in the Church, my ex- 
ample must influence others : for if I stay away, why not 
they 1 

12. Because, on any important business, bad weather does 
not keep me in the house ; and church attendance is, in God's 
sight, very important. (See Heb. x. 25.) 

13. Because, among the crowds of pleasure-seekers, I see 
that no bad weather keeps the delicate female from the ball, 
the party, or the concert. 

14. Because, among other blessings, such weather will show 
me on what foundation my faith is built. It will prove how 
much I love Christ ; for true love rarely fails to meet an ap- 
pointment. 

15. Because a fear that my clothes might suffer, shows 
that I think more of them than of that beauty of holiness 
which God so approves. 

16. Because I am Christ's soldier, signed with His Cross ; 
and he is a poor soldier who retreats to his house because of 
a cloud. 

17. Because those who stay from church because it is too 
warm, or too cold, or too rainy, frequently absent themselve-s 
even on fair Sundays. They intended to go to church last 
Sunday, but — 

18. Because, though my excuses satisfy myself, they still 
must undergo God's scrutiny ; and I must be well grounded 
to bear that. (See St. Luke xiv. 16.) 

19. Because the friends of God are so few in the world, 
9* 



102 REASONS WHY I ATTEND CHURCH 

that the Church cannot afford to lose one. " Friends in need 
are friends indeed." 

20. Because there is a special promise, where only two 
or three meet together, in God's name, he is in the midst of 
them. 

21. Because absence from church, for reasons which would 
not keep me from going to buy a pencil on week days, must 
be discouraging to all true friends of the church, particularly 
its vestrymen and wardens. 

22. Because the Church has great reason to complain, that 
when, on any excitement, there are scarcely seats for the peo- 
ple ; when any change of weather occurs, there is scarcely 
people for seats. 

" The friends that in her sunshine come, 
"When clouds arise, are flown." 

23. Because an avoidable absence from church, is an in- 
fallible evidence of spiritual decay. Disciples first follow 
Christ at a distance, and then, like Peter, do not know him. 

24. Because my faith is to be known by my self-denying 
good works, and not by the rise and fall of the thermometer. 

25. Because, after all, I may find disagreeable Sundays 
blessings in disguise. At least, I sing — 

" Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, 
The clouds you so much dread 
Are big with mercies, and shall break 
In blessings on your head." 

26. Because the punctual attendance of another denomina- 
tion on what I suppose a defective worship, is a call on me to 
be equally punctual on a service I believe to be perfect. 

27. Because I think it very inconsistent to speak of our 
liturgy as so superior to any other mode of worship, and, for 
the slightest cause, absent myself from its performance. 



IN ALL WEATHER. 



103 



28. Because my belief in the Apostolic institution of Epis- 
copacy, demands from me an apostolic attendance on its 
ministry. And in those days, an Emperor's threats could 
not keep from worship, much less a lowering cloud or warm 
sun. 

29. Because such yielding to surmountable difficulties pre- 
pares for yielding to those entirely imaginary, until thousands 
never enter a church, and yet think that they have good rea- 
sons for such neglect. 

30. Because, if from fear of cold or heat I can neglect 
worship, the East Indian and the Laplander should never at- 
tend, and missionaries should be withdrawn from such unfa- 
vorable climes. 

31. Because, so far from relaxing that diligent church 
attendance which marked the time of my confirmation, I 
should be more diligent, as I see the day approaching. 

32. Because, by a suitable arrangement on Saturday, I 
shall be able to attend church without exhaustion ; otherwise, 
my late work on Saturday night will be as great a sin as 
though I worked on Sunday itself. 

33. Because, though I should lose some custom by an early 
closing of my business on Saturday night, I should cheerfully 
make such sacrifice, for the favor of God and the testimony 
of my conscience. 

34. Because I know not how many more Sundays God 
may still vouchsafe me ; and it would be a poor preparation 
for my first Sunday in Heaven, to have slighted my last 
Sunday on earth. 



104 



REASONS FOR CONTRIBUTING 



$n m$% &\m\ f to spfuwj for xlulf; 

OR, 

THIRTY-HYE REASONS !0R CONTRIBUTING LIBERALLY TO THE 
CHURCH'S SUPPORT. 



1. Because, by the very appointment of a Church to which 
all are obliged to belong, all are equally obliged to contribute 
to its maintenance according to their ability. 

2. Because God has not left this in doubt, but, under both 
the Jewish and Christian dispensations, requires his people to 
" bring their gifts to the altar." 

3. Because the Church herself demands it as necessary to 
her very existence. The ministry ; the Sunday School ; the 
Parochial School ; the Church's poor ; the distribution of 
good books; the cause of Diocesan, Domestic and Foreign 
Missions ; all, with outstretched hands, implore you to come 
and help them. 

4. Because, if you neglect this affecting appeal, you mani- 
festly show that, whatever you profess, your love to the 
Saviour is delusive: for "he that seeth his brother have need 
and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the 
love of God in him ?" 

5. Because the usual mode, of meeting all other claims 
before the Church's wants are supplied, shows that Time has, 
in your judgment, a preference to Eternity; the world to 
Christ ; the perishable body to the immortal soul. 

6. Because, in not contributing liberally to the Gospel's 
support, I am neglecting a most important means of personal 



TO THE CHURCH'S SUPPORT. 



105 



improvement ; retaining that wheat which, if sown, would 
produce an abundant harvest. 

7. Because the various excuses which are urged for not 
contributing are vain and deceptive ; and the real reason is, 
that the heart is so attached to "the farm and the mer- 
chandise," that there is no room for Christ and His Church. 

8. And so, notwithstanding the deep poverty of the Mace- 
donians, their unsolicited liberality supplied the wants of the 
Christians in Judea. In this, as in other things, quality is 
more effective than quantity. 

9. Because, though such excuses may deceive myself and 
my fellow-men, they cannot deceive Him who has made me 
his steward, and will call me to a strict account. 

10. Because it is actually discreditable that, while industry, 
in any business, will secure most persons a reasonable 
support, nine-tenths of Christ's ministers live in great straits, 
and, at death, leave their families in poverty. 

11. Because it is a burning shame, that the members of an 
Apostolic Church contributed to the support of Domestic and 
Foreign Missions some seventy thousand dollars for the 
years 1851-2, while a celebrated singer received for only one 
night's entertainment some ten thousand dollars, and through- 
out the United States, in the course of a year, some six 
hundred thousand dollars. 

12. Because, while covetousness (the Church's sin) is 
denounced by God's curse, a cheerful liberality not only 
fulfils His command, but has its approbation not only here 
but in the solemn retributions of the last day. 

13. Because, though my means are not ample, they are 
more so than those of many of my fellow men, and I should 
show my gratitude to God by giving more liberally to his 
Church. 

14. Because, though my income were so small as to barely 



106 



REASONS FOR CONTRIBUTING 



meet my expenses, yet there might be, with advantage to 
body and soul, some retrenchment even in those expenses. 
The poor widow's self-denying mites filled the Church's trea- 
sury, while gifts without self-denial left it still empty. 

15. Because, while we should at all times be temperate, 
yet if during Lent we all saved something from the table, 
from furniture, from dress, from amusements, the Church 
would, from such saving, cheer many drooping hearts, and 
cause many of her waste places " to rejoice and sing." 

16. Because God's standard of contribution is not the 
ordinary rental of a pew, or the subscription, but that ability 
which God has given me, and that self-denial which I can 
practise. 

17. Because the reason why persons fall in grace as they 
rise in worldly prosperity, is that they do not proportion their 
liberality to their means of usefulness. 

18. Because, even in a temporal point of view, if I do not 
proportion my gifts to my means, I tempt God to proportion 
my means to my gifts, and thus to take away the misimp roved 
talent. 

19. Because, though what I give supplies some pressing 
wants of the Church, I am still giving to Christ through that 
want, for He himself has said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me." 

20. Because, the longer I permit my dues to be unpaid, the 
more difficult will such payment become, until I am tempted 
to give up the Church altogether. 

21. Because God has solemnly promised that those "who 
seek His Kingdom and Righteousness first" shall have added 
all necessary temporal things; and it was the Psalmist's 
testimony, that "though he was old, yet had he never seen 
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread." 

22. Because it should be a matter of serious inquiry, 



TO THE CHURCH'S SUPPORT. 



107 



whether the general failure of ninety-five merchants out of a 
hundred, does not result from the neglect of this principle 
of systematic liberality proportioned to their means. 

23. Because the time is rapidly coming when I shall have 
no opportunity to be a co-worker with God, in giving my 
means to extend His kingdom. This world being the ap- 
pointed place where such an opportunity is afforded. 

24. Because I had better do good with my means before I 
die, and thus see their beneficial results, than wait for death 
which deprives me of all I have, and gives it to others 
whom it may injure. 

25. Because, though it be said " my money is my own," it 
is not so ; for " the silver and gold" belong to God ; and a 
man may meet all his engagements with his fellow citizens, 
and yet "rob God." — Malachi. 

26. Because, instead of murmuring at " so many calls," I 
should thankfully recognize them as a Providential arrange- 
ment to exercise the principle of benevolence ; and instead 
of wishing them fewer, I should rejoice that the Church is so 
greatly extending. 

27. Because, for a man to profess to be the follower of a 
crucified Saviour, and yet give with reluctance to that Saviour's 
cause, is just as absurd as to speak of warm ice or a cold sun. 
And such a one will discover his mistake in the next world, 
if not in this. 

28. Because, whatever difficulties I may have in giving, 
yet if I adopt St. Paul's rule, and regularly lay by, weekly or 
monthly, as the Lord has prospered me, I shall possess a 
spring which, filling itself, revives the heart of the weary 
pilgrim. 

29. Because, next to forgiving, such benevolence repays its 
possessor with the purest enjoyment, of which nothing can 
deprive him ; Christ Himself declaring, " That it is more 



108 



REASONS FOR CONTRIBUTING 



blessed to give than to receive," a testimony founded on the 
deepest experience. 

30. Because my neglecting to meet my Church dues tends 
to make the minister's salary still smaller, to involve him in 
debts discreditable to his high station, distracting to his mind, 
and unfitting him for that quiet which is necessary to the dis- 
charge of his duties. 

31. Because, though he may say nothing, such failure to 
meet my obligations must have a very discouraging effect, 
leading him to suppose that his exertions are not appreciated 
by me. 

32. Because it is very unjust in me to receive the benefits 
of his ministrations in health, in sickness, and at death, and 
yet to be careless whether he be comfortable or not. 

33. Because Christ regards with special interest the treat- 
ment His ministers receive ; and though they be silent, yet 
will He not be so, for He has said, " He that receiveth you 
receiveth Me." They are ambassadors, and neglect of them 
is a slight upon that government which delegates them. 

34. Because the non-payment of my dues further tends to 
place additional trouble on the vestry, to retard the most 
necessary expenses of the Church, and to impose on some one 
else the making up of my deficiency. 

35. Because, though I do give something to the Church's 
support, yet if that something be only the putting a half-dime 
on the Sunday plate, or if it be only at the rate of three mills 
on a hundred dollars, I shall accomplish the Church's support 
about as much as he who gave ten pounds to pay Great 
Britain's national debt. 

For the above thirty-five reasons I will regularly contribute 
hereafter to my Church's support ; and, though some may 



TO THE CHURCH'S SUPPORT. 



109 



neglect this complaint of " an empty Church plate," I am 
thankful that God yet vouchsafes me the opportunity of doing 
good, and I shall try to be more faithful to Him, His Church, 
and myself. 



11 ■ 



ORDER FOR SUNDAY SERVICE. 

Adapted to the Prayer Books published by Dana and Company, New York, 
The numbers are at the foot of the page until they reach page 22. 



MORNING. 



Stmd. 
Kxtei. 

Stand. 



Sit. 

Stand. 

Sit. 

Stand. 

Kneel. 

Stand. 

Kneel. 

Sit. 

Stand. 

Stand. 



{See Page 23.) 

i Sentences of Scripture, 
"j Exhortation to Confession. 

(Confession of Sin, p. 25. 
Declaration of Absolution. 
Lord's Prayer, with Ver- 
sicles. 

" Glory be to," with Ver- 
sicles. 

"Venite," with "Glory 
be." 

"Portion of Psalms for the 
day," p. 401 to 639, or 
" Selection of Psalms," 
p. 361 to 401. 

" Glory be," p. 27 ; or 
" Gloria in Excelsis," 
p. 29. 

( First lesson ; of Old Testa- 
( ment, p. 10. 

■{ Te Deum laudamus, p. 29. 
( Second Lesson ; of New 
I Testament, p. 10. 
Jubilate or Benedictus, 

p. 33-34. 
"I believe," with Ver si- 
des. 

{Versicles, Collect for 
Peace, p. 36; for Grace, 
Prayer for President, 
Litany, p. 53.* 
•{ Psalm in Metre. 

I Communion Service, p. 295. 
< Commandments, p. 296. 
( Collect for day, p. 72 to 294. 

j Epistle, p. 72 to 294. 
\ Gospel, p. 72 to 294. 
■{ A Hymn. 



EVENING-. 



Stand. 



Kneel, 



Stand. 



Sit. 



Stand. 



Sit. 



Stand. 



{See Page 40.) 

Sentences of Scripture. 
Exhortation to Confession. 

{Confession of Sin, p. 42. 
Declaration of Absolution. 
Lord's Prayer, with Versi- 
cles. 

" Glory be," with Versi- 
cles. 

" Portion of Psalms for the 
day," p. 401 to 639 ; or 
" Selection of Psalms," 
p. 361 to 401. 

" Glory be," p. 44 ; or 
" Gloria in Excelsis." 
I p. 29. 

( First Lesson; of OldTesta- 
( ment, p. 10. 

( Cantate Domino, or Bo- 
( num est, p. 45-46. 

( Second Lesson; of New 
I Testament, p. 10. 

{Deus misereatur, or Bene- 
dic, p. 46-47. 
"I believe," with Versi- 
cles, p. 47. 



(Versicles, Collect for day, 
p. 72 to 294. 
Collect for Peace,* &c. 

Stand. ■{ Psalm in Metre, 



Be punctual at Church, and 
join in responses and Amen. 



* During Session of Congress, the occasional prayer on page 61 is added. 

JEIP* For an INDEX to various offices of Church, at Catechism, Confirmation, etc., 
see page 3. 

5^** To find Easter-day for each year, see upper table on page 20. And for Advent, 
Septuagesima Sunday, Ash-Wednesday, etc., see lower table on same page. 



112 * RULES FOR CHURCHMEN. 



To derive benefit from the Public Worship of Almighty God, and to avoid 
disturbing the devotion of others, the following BULES should be 
observed in Protestant Episcopal Churches. 

1. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of 
some is ; but exhorting one another and so much the more, as ye see 
the day approaching. — Hebrews, 10 chap. 25 verse. 

2. Be in time to implore upon your knees God's blessing on the services 
about to commence. 

3. In case of coming late, pause for a few moments at the door, until the 
next change of posture. 

4. Conform to the postures of standing and kneeling with the rest of the 
Congregation. Make audible responses on the proper occasions, and 
apply every prayer to yourself by saying " Amen." 

5. Avoid the impropriety of leaving the Church before the congregation 
is dismissed by the Minister. 

6. Discourage conversation, reading books, turning over leaves, moving 
about and looking around while the Minister is officiating. 

7. Take the children of the family under your own charge, teaching them 
to use the Prayer Book. 

8. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for some have thereby enter- 
tained angels unawares. — Reb. 13 chapter, 2 verse. 

9. Remember that the Church is public, not so much for meeting men as 
our God. 

This is the temple of the Lord, 
How dreadful is this place ! 
With meekness let us hear His "Word, 
With reverence seek His face. 

10. "And further, it shall be the duty of every Minister, with such as- 
sistance as he can obtain from persons skilled in music, to give order 
concerning the tunes to be sung at any time in his Church ; and 
especially, it shall be his duty to suppress all light and unseemly music, 
and all indecency and irreverence in its performance, by which vain and 
ungodly persons profane the services of the sanctuary." — See Preface 
to Psalms in Metre. 

11. When the congregation is dismissed, pause a few moments to thank 
God for the privileges enjoyed, and ask grace that you may improve 
them. 

OTHER RULES TO BE OBSERVED. 

I. Notice of Baptism. 
"When there are children to be baptized, the parents or sponsors shall 
give notice thereof, before the beginning of Morning Prayer, to the 
Minister." "And also Ministers shall warn the people that without 
great cause and necessity, they procure not their children to be baptized 
at home in their houses." 

II. Catechism to be taught at home. 
" The members of this Church shall instruct their families, as far as 
they are able, in the principles of the Christian religion, and shall cause 
their children to attend the catechetical instructions of their Rector; 
and as soon as they are sufficiently inforrhed and impressed with the 
importance and sacredness of their baptismal vow, they shall present 
them to the Rector as candidates for confirmation ; who shall examine 
them, and if satisfied of their fitness, recommend them to the Bishop for 
confirmation." — XVII. Canon of Maryland. 



RULES FOR CHURCHMEN. 



IIS 



III. The Lord's day to be hallowed. 
" All persons within this Church shall celebrate and keep the Lord's 
day, commonly called Sunday, in hearing the word of God read and 
taught, in private and public prayer, in other exercises of devotion, and 
in acts of charity, using all godly and sober conversation." — XLI. 
Canon of General Convention. 

IV. Communicants to have family worship. 
" It shall be the duty of every communicant in the Church, who is the 
head of a family, to live in the daily exercise of family worship."— Canon 
XVI. of Maryland. 

V. Theatrical and other light and vain amusements forbidden. 
" Attendance upon theatrical exhibitions, horse racing, and other vain 
and light amusements being considered inconsistent with the Christian 
character, it is hereby declared to be the duty of members of this Church 
carefully to abstain from encouraging them by their presence." — Canon 
XVIII. of Maryland. 

VI. Ministers to be careful in admitting to the Holy Communion. 
"No member of this Church, who has not previously communed, 
shall offer himself for the reception of the Lord's Supper, nor shall any 
Minister enroll any persons as communicants of his congregation until 
the Minister shall have conversed with such person or persons on the 
subject, or until he shall have been satisfied that they have been regular 
communicants in his own or some other congregation." — XIX. Canon of 
Maryland. 

VII. Excluding from the Holy Communion and Sponsorship in Baptism 

notorious transgressors. 
" Ministers shall be careful not to admit any person to the Holy Com- 
munion, or as Sponsors in Baptism, who are notorious transgressors ; 
and the Vestries of vacant parishes shall endeavor to prevent such per- 
sons from being imposed on Ministers visiting such parishes." — Canon 
XX. of Maryland. 

VIII. Communicants who neglect the Lord's Supper, to be stricken from 

the roll. 

" Any communicant who shall neglect for six months successively, to 
attend the celebration of the Lord's Supper, may at the discretion of 
his or her Rector be stricken from the list of communicants, unless satis- 
factory reasons for such neglect be assigned to the Rector." — Canon XXL 
of Maryland. 

IX. Offences for which communicants may be presented and tried. 
" Scandalous and immoral conduct, gaming, or any other vicious or 
corrupting amusements, a general neglect of public worship, breach of 
any of the Divine precepts, are offences for which communicants may be 
brought to trial." — Canon XXII. of Maryland. 

X. On the support of Ministers. 
"Whereas it is enjoined that the Minister of the Gospel 'shall live 
of the Gospel,' and it is the right and duty of every parishioner or 
member of a congregation to contribute his or her share to the support 
of the Ministry as God hath given ability ; and, whereas it is the busi- 
ness of the Vestry of each parish or congregation to take care for the 
fulfilment of the Divine command by the diligence of the people: It 
shall be the duty of the Vestry of each parish or congregation to pro- 



114 



RULES FOR CHURCHMEN. 



vide, by taking care for the gathering of offerings in Divine service, 
(except the alms at the Holy Communion,) or by the procurement and 
collection of subscriptions or of pew rents, by committees or otherwise, 
for the payment of the amount stipulated for the support of the Rector, 
or Minister, or Ministers, quarterly in advance. And it shall be the 
duty of every Rector or Minister in his annual report to the Bishop to 
state distinctly whether this canon shall have been obeyed ; and it shall 
be the duty of the Secretary of the Convention to report at some time 
before the close of each Annual Convention, and enter on the journal, a 
list of the names of all parishes and congregations not reported as having 
fulfilled this canon." — XXXI. Canon of Maryland. 

XI. Visitation of the sick. 
" "When any person is sick, notice thereof shall be given to the Minister 
of the Parish." 

" The Minister shall not omit earnestly to move such sick persons as 
are of ability to be liberal to the poor." — Rubric. 

Also, on recovery from peril, " a thank-offering should be offered, to be 
applied by the Minister to relief of distress." 

" Here it is to be noted that the office for the burial of the dead is not 
to be used for any unbaptized adults, any who die excommunicated, or any 
who lay violent hands on themselves." 

"Every Church Warden shall have power to keep the peace and also 
to preserve order and decency in his respective Churches or Chapels." — 
Vestry law of Maryland. 

Sunday School Rules. 

1. The Teachers should prepare for the class by studying the lesson 
given, and asking God's blessing on their exertions. 

2. They should visit the absent scholars, and induce the parents to attend 
Church. 

3. They should be regular and punctual in attendance upon School, at the 
stated Teachers' meeting, and at their own Church. 

4. They should particularly see that the Church catechism be learned, 
and the Church service be understood, that the child can take part in 
the service. 

5. They should not allow any conversation in the class, nor any scholar to 
leave his seat without permission. 

1. The Parents should see that the lesson given at school be learned at 
home. 

2. They should send the child to school punctually and regularly, see that 
the library book be carefully returned, and by example encourage the 
child to attend public worship. 

3. They should select such week-day schools as pay most regard to the 
child's religious training. 

4. They should require the child to attend the catechising of the Minister, 
and regard all instructions imperfect that do not contemplate a due 
preparation for confirmation. 

5. " There shall be for every male child to be baptized, when they can 
be had. two Godfathers and one Godmother ; and for every female, one 
Godfather and two Godmothers; and Parents shall be admitted as 
sponsors if desired." 

6. For duties of Sponsors, see Exhortation in the Office for Public Bap- 
tism of Infants, p age 324. 



DANA AND COMPANY, 

No. 381 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, 

(Sign of the Imperial Folio Bible), 

HAVE JUST PUBLISHED TWO EXCELLENT EDITIONS OF 

Cfre §00k jtf €mmm f rager, 

IQmo. and 24mo., 
At the following Prices : — 

16mo. 

Turkey Morocco super extra $2.50. 

French " gilt 1.50. 

Roan " gilt edges 1.00. 

Roan " ... plain 88. 



24mo. 

Turkey Morocco super extra $2.00. 

French " gilt 1.25. 

Roan " gilt edges 75. 

Roan " plain 63. 



Other New Publications of Dana and Company. 
UNISON OF THE LITURGY; Being an Exhibition of 
the Harmony of the Subject contained in the Collect for 
each Sunday in the year, with the Epistle, the Gospel, and 
the Lessons for that day ; and of its accordance with a cor- 
responding Topic in the Church's Catechism, and in her 
Articles of Religion. From Advent to Ash Wednesday. 
By Archer Gifford, A. M. 12mo., 328 pages. 

Price, $1. 

A large number of the most distinguished Bishops, Clergymen 
and Laymen of the Church, to whom a specimen of this work con- 
taining the Sundays in Advent was submitted, some months since, have 
concurred in testifying to its felicitousness in conception, and its faith- 
fulness in execution, and in the expression of the hope that the author 
would go on and complete that which had been so happily begun. 

7 



Publications of Dana and Company. 



SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. By the Rev. Charles 
Kingsley, Author of " Village Sermons" " Alton Locke" 
&c. \2mo., 360 pages. Pi-ice, 75 cents. 

These Sermons are Kingsley all over ; deep, daring, dashing, pene- 
trating, vigorous. *************** 
It strikes us as being a kind of preaching that we "want just now 
— that it is indeed preaching " for the times;" in character with 
the times, and, therefore, adapted for the times : yet, not in any 
spirit of compromise with the world therein, but rather combating 
the spirit of the world with the Spirit of Christ, in a matter-of- 
fact way. We think, therefore, that the Clergy may find some use- 
ful hints in the pages of this volume, while the Laity may peruse 
them with practical advantage. Churchman. 



These are remarkable Sermons, as were those of his former volume. 
They are models of a plain and direct style, sparkling with forcible 
allusions and applications. They illustrate the teaching of our Cate- 
chism to a considerable extent, and often in the happiest manner, 
regarding it as a symbol of Catholic truth. They are worth reading 
for their power and demonstrations of most important doctrines, little 
heeded in these times, when the Puritan and Sectarian spirit seeks to 
prevail. Banner of the Cross. 



This is a reprint of one of the most characteristic, if not one of the 
most extraordinary volumes of the day, which no one can read with- 
out interest, and few without profit. There is something striking, not 
to say startling, about everything the author says ; and yet the lan- 
guage is so simple and appropriate, as to be perfectly intelligible to 
every one. Calendar. 



A capital volume it is — his style seems to gain in directness, crisp- 
ness, vigor, and momentum, as he grows older. It is as clear as Eng- 
lish can be made. A healthy common sense rules throughout. * * 
* * * * j n our <j a y -^hen muddy heads do so greatly abound, a 
volume of such sturdy, pungent, powerful and illuminating Saxon, is 
of the highest worth. Church Journal. 



They are incomparable Sermons for Za?/-reading. 

10 



Publications of Dana and Company. 



IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND. By the Rev. A. Cleve- 
land Coxe. 12mo., 340 pages. Price, $1. 
The Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe has done a great favor to the early 
Subscribers of the Church Journal, by collecting and publishing in a 
volume, the Impressions of England, which "were so prominent and 
popular a feature of our paper during nearly the first year of its 
existence. To those early subscribers of ours, nothing beyond the 
bare announcement of the publication need be said, to recal the vivid 
memory of those delightful letters. But, for the sake of the more 
than three thousand that have been added since, we would say, that 
the volume, as a whole, is even more attractive, than were the weekly 
instalments then so keenly enjoyed. Mr. Coxe's local knowledge of 
England, even before he landed on its shores, was extraordinary ; and 
it has enabled him to stock his pages with a richness, fulness and 
variety of allusion, which perpetually kindles new interest. His 
faculties of observation are more than commonly keen ; and his com- 
mand of language is equally graphic and vigorous. Singular good 
fortune seems to have attended him also. Lucky chances, such as 
common tourists may light on one or two, seem to have been showered 
on him at every turn. Incidents that have already become historic, 
are stamped, with freshest life, on every portion of the work. Again, 
as if before our eyes, Lord John Russell figures in the disgraceful and 
contemptible mad farce of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. Again we 
see the Iron Duke bowing in lowly worship in the Chapel Royal of 
St. James. Again we wander under the vast long-drawn, and diaphan- 
ous expanse of the Crystal Palace. Again we rove from Cathedrals 
to Churches, and Colleges, and ruined Abbeys, and sequestered ham- 
lets, and breathe the pure rural air of living England, yet scented 
with the rich aroma of a glorious past. The essential unity of the 
two nations is ever uppermost in Mr. Coxe's mind ; yet never, even in 
the Royal presence, does he forget his native Republicanism. His 
heart beats true and strong for the freedom and purity of the Reform- 
ation, and against the slavish corruptions of Rome ; yet yearns, 
with deepest love, towards everything rightly belonging to our dear 
Mother the Church ; and his trumpet rings out clear, with no uncer- 
tain note, against all who would mar her full proportion of " the 
beauty of holiness." In short, we are with the author, as it were 
personally, from the beginning to the end of the volume : and when 
we lay it down, it is with an instinctive asking — " Shall we never 
travel with this charming companion again ?" Church Journal. 

11 * 



Publications of Dana and Company. 



IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND. By the Rev. A. Cleve- 
land Coxe. 12mo., 340 pages. Price, $1. 

American Churchmen -will find this the most delightful account of 
a visit to our mother country and mother Church, that has ever 
appeared. It was made in an interesting and memorable year, 1851 ; 
and the reputation which had preceded the author as a poet, scholar, 
and clergyman, procured for him at once a peculiarly cordial recep- 
tion, and such an intimate access to the various phases of English 
society, as is rarely enjoyed by American travellers. Thus supplied 
with an unusual richness of material, he has produced a volume 
which will be read with universal interest and pleasure in both 
countries. Banner of the Cross. 

Though these sketches are descriptive of subjects with which we 
are all more or less familiar, yet it is both entertaining and instructive 
to trace the impressions received by a man of talent, education and 
refinement, who has avoided the common places of travel, and taken 
no delight in spying out the miseries of the land, but rather exhibited 
those phases of society, and higher points of English civilization, 
which give character and dignity to the English nation. 

Protestant Churchman. 

Books of travel and sojourn in England, have been so common, 
that we feel almost reluctant to take up a new work of this descrip- 
tion ; but we were agreeably disappointed in the volume before us. 
Mr. Coxe went abroad with many advantages. A Clerg3 T man of the 
Church of England, with no mean reputation as a Christian poet : 
with many old correspondents of clerical and social repute " in the 
land whither he went," and to whom, of course, he was accredited ; 
and, moreover, with a determination not to be a one-sided observer, 
or a growling commentator ; with .all these advantages, it is not sur- 
prising that he "enjoyed himself;" and that he does not hesitate to 
say so, on all occasions, and in the most enthusiastic terms. 

The Knickerbocker Monthly Magazine. 

These agreeable sketches, which appeared originally in the columns 
of the JS~ew York Church Journal, are now presented to the readers 
in a revised and connected form. 

They do not embrace the tedious routine of "books of travel" — 
life at hotels, travelling in stage coaches or by rail, dimensions of 
public buildings, etc., etc., — all of which have been given an hundred 
times before in every diversity of form, — but rather give us pictures 
of English society, customs, men, manners, and events, embracing, as 
the author justly claims, a connected history of Great Britain for the 
year 1851, with readable sketch as of many of its most prominent 
men — Whigs and Tories. Troy Daily Whig. 

12 



Publications of Dana and Company. 



OUR CHURCH MUSIC. — A Booh for Pastors and People. 
By Richard Storrs Willis. 12mo., 138 pages. 

Price, 50 cents. 

The Church has a good right to look to Mr. Richard S. Willis, as 
being, perhaps, of all our youthful native musicians, the one of whom 
she may expect the most true hearted and efficient service. His train- 
ing, however scientific, has not been that which would qualify him 
the most readily for usefulness in this field : but there is an earnest 
devotion of spirit, a reaching forth after the deep and the true, a 
growing strength and manliness, exercised and made firm by a steady 
industry, which promise the best results. He has just issued a neat 
little volume on Our Church Music, a Booh for Pastors and People, 
which is the best and most thoughtful practical essay that has for a 
long time appeared among us. Church Journal. 



"Were it not for the copyright on this admirable book, we should 
be compelled to transfer large portions of it to our pages. As it is, 
we hope to give, hereafter, some specimens of it, and in the mean 
time, cordially recommend it for its interest and the usefulness of its 
suggestions. Episcopal Recorder. 



Many of the articles collected in this pleasant and thoughtful 
volume have been already published in our columns ; and we are glad 
to know that they have attracted that attention among our readers 
which they deserve. The series is now completed, by the addition of 
others, not so well adapted to a journal like this, because requiring 
diagrams, etc., to illustrate them, but harmonious with those in tone 
and teaching, and equally rich in useful suggestions. Mr. "Willis has 
brought the finest musical cultivation of Europe to assist him in his 
task, but has never allowed his artistic taste and knowledge to over- 
lay and smother his native good sense, or his instinctive perception 
of what is demanded in true church music. "We have found his 
writings on this subject instructive and quickening ; the more so, per- 
haps, because our own half-formed thoughts have often been brought 
back to us by him, more fully and clearly expressed than they had 
been to ourselves, and clothed with the authority that belongs to one 
who is so rapidly becoming a recognised Master in his chosen depart- 
ment. Independent. 

13 



Publications of Dana and Company. 



THE NIGHTINGALE. — A Tale of the Russian War 
Forty Years Ago — Beautifully Illustrated. ISmo., 96 
pages. Muslin. Price, 31 cents. 

Paper covers, 16 cents. 

The Nightingale, or A Kind Act is Never Lost, is a pleasant little 
Tale, from the German of Christopher Schmid. The incidents are 
laid in the Russian war, forty years ago, and among the many warm 
sympathizers with Russia now abounding among us, this interesting 
little story will be welcomed with more than common zest. It is 
intended for children, and teaches a moral of the law of kindness — 
not by tagging the moral to the end of the story, but by making it 
the living principle which gives life to the whole. It is handsomely 
gotten up, with several spirited wood-cuts, printed in tint. 

Church Journal. 

This is a beautiful story, from the German of Christoph Schmid, 
exquisitely told, about a poor lad who wanted to be a carriage-maker, 
and was befriended by a great lady, and learned his trade, and came 
to affluence and power, and saved the life of the son of his benefac- 
tress. The moral is happily pointed, and the story, though simple in 
its plot, attracts great interest by its touches of sentiment and pathos. 

Protestant Churchman. 

A pretty story beautifully published. Hartford Daily Courant. 

A pleasant little narrative. * * * * It is beautifully and 
suitably illustrated. Troy Daily Whig. 

This is a sweet and instructive tale, from one of the most popular 
German writers, and is done into English by a competent hand. 

The Calendar. 

THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED. — Arranged as Sup- 
plementary to the Church Catechism. S2mo., 16 pages, 
for the Pocket. Price, $4.00 per hundred. 

An admirable and comprehensive summary, in which the chief 
subjects of additional catechetical instruction are most conveniently 
grouped, so as best to aid the youthful memory. 



22 



Iff 2 'S 



■ 



HI 



1 



Hi 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



